The Medical Trend where East meets West – Traditional Chinese Medicine at Raffles Hospital, Singapore

More Bruneians are looking east to seek answers for their health concerns. This seems to be so, judging by recent trends of increasing visits to Raffles Chinese Medicine (RCM) clinic by Bruneians.

Raffles started its own Traditional Chinese Medicine clinic following requests from patients to set up TCM services as a complementary form of medicine. The idea was for a TCM clinic that is run based on professional standards and practices adapted from a western medical practice.

The RCM clinic is popular with Chinese and non-Chinese speaking patients alike, as it has English speaking Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) physicians who could bridge eastern and western medicine, and open TCM services to the patients from Singapore and the region, including Malaysians, Indonesians and Bruneians.

With the blending of east and west, TCM patients benefit from the diagnostic facility of western medicine for definitive diagnosis. Explains Mr Wu Yue, a Chinese Physician at Raffles Chinese Medicine: “TCM physicians can no longer simply rely on feeling pulses and observing tongues to diagnose cases. We can borrow the western doctors’ methods and equipment to understand the cause and development of the sickness - from determining treatment based on symptoms, we move to determining treatment based on diagnosis. This will allow us to treat patients more accurately.”

What makes Raffles Chinese Medicine different is that the physicians dialogue with the specialists in the Hospital, allowing them to discuss how they can combine eastern and western medicine to help patients recover.

Explains Ms Seah Ai Wei, Manager - designate at RCM: “The popularity of TCM lies in people’s growing preference for a form of therapy that utilises the body's natural selfcurative abilities to relieve pain and tension. A body in equilibrium gives rise to increased circulation and strengthened resistance to diseases, thus promoting healing and wellness.”

She elaborates that instead of drugs and antiobiotics, TCM relies on natural herbs known for their healing properties.

Acupuncture is used in co-management programmes with western medicine for treatments such as for fertility, pain management such as back and neck pain, and weight management. Therefore, it is not surprising that more patients with orthopaedic conditions turn to acupuncture for pain management, in addition to seeking treatment with the orthopaedic surgeons and physiotherapists.

Mr. Michael Lee, Managing Director of Freme Travel Services Sdn. Bhd., an overseas associate of Raffles Hospital, Singapore, is heartened to note that Bruneians are becoming more conscious about their health and well-being. He notices that there is an increasing trend amongst Bruneians in seeking complementary options such as TCM for their medical concerns.

Backed by Raffles Hospital, the flagship hospital of Raffles Medical Group, which has more than 30 years of experience in providing medical services in Singapore and the regions, Freme Travel Services sees more Bruneians taking up the popular healthscreening travel packages and making medical- related travel arrangements to Singapore.

Mr Lee is confident that the trend will continue and anticipates that corporate companies may even take on wellness-based travel packages for their employees.