A public hospital is taking the unprecedented step of integrating Chinese medicine into treatment for inpatients.
Kwong Wah Hospital will start offering the treatment to stroke and colon-cancer patients as early as next week.
About 10 patients will be recruited for a pilot scheme, a Hospital Authority source said. All will receive herbal remedies as well as western medicine, with stroke patients also receiving acupuncture.
It is understood the hospital, the first in the city to offer such a service, will announce details of the plan on Friday. The source said patients would pay $240 a day for the Chinese medicine services on top of the authority's usual $100-a-day charge.
The $240 will be paid to the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals which will hire the Chinese medical practitioners. However, the group plans to offer a waiver to patients who cannot afford the charge. It already runs a Chinese medicine outpatient clinic from the hospital. The source added the hospital may designate a ward for the patients.
The decision to limit the treatment to stroke and colon-cancer patients was taken after the hospital and the Chinese medical practitioners discussed patient numbers and treatment effectiveness. But the hospital intends to expand the service to children with asthma and hay fever.
