Chinese medicine hospital to launch 2 new programmes

The Chinese Medicine Hospital of Hong Kong will launch two specialised clinical programmes next Monday, with a focus on post-stroke care and low back pain management.

The stroke care programme focuses on the rehabilitation of patients from one week to three years post-stroke, provided they can move with assistance and do not require round-the-clock hospital care.

Meanwhile, the low back pain management programme offers treatment for both acute and chronic symptoms.

Based on clinical needs, post-stroke and back pain patients may also receive day ward services.

Both programmes will adopt an integrated Chinese-Western medicine approach, with Chinese medicine taking the lead in designing treatment strategies.

An expert panel of Western medical doctors and Chinese medicine practitioners will establish the hospital's overarching clinical direction, while frontline medical staff from both disciplines will jointly consult patients and evaluate individual cases.

Hospital chief executive Bian Zhaoxian explained that programmes for low back pain and post-stroke care are being rolled out first because these conditions are very common in Hong Kong.

He noted that the expert panel will monitor the treatment process and step in if necessary.

“We set the special expertise group to monitor, advise, and set up the protocol, which is also where we audit the process during the treatment. We have the planning to monitor and also to revise the protocol based on the patient's response,” he said.

Charges for the programmes will follow the hospital's current fee structure, with subsidised services provided for eligible Hong Kong residents.

Under this framework, each Chinese or Western doctor consultation will cost HK$250 for subsidised patients, while the cost ranges from HK$450 to HK$790 for others.

Residents can now make appointments by phone or through WhatsApp messages.

Bian said the hospital will closely monitor the situation following the programmes' launch and may deploy extra staff to meet the possible demand surge.

He added that ten other special disease programmes will be delivered this year as planned.

Edited by Aaron Tam ...