SINGAPORE — In a bid to further boost professionalism within the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) sector, all registered practitioners will have to undergo an education programme when they renew their practising certificates.

The new requirement, announced yesterday by Senior Minister of State for Health Chee Hong Tat, will come into effect in a few years’ time — after the TCM Practitioners Act is amended within the next 12 to 18 months.

A transition period will be provided to get practitioners up to speed with the move.

The continuing TCM education programme was launched in 2013 and is voluntary for now.

The new requirement aims to help TCM physicians stay up to date with the latest knowledge on disease management. It will also identify areas where the sector can help support Singapore’s healthcare challenges, the Health Ministry (MOH) said.

Mr Chee spoke at Nanyang Technological University, where graduands from ​a double-degree programme in biomedical sciences and Chinese medicine were having their convocation yesterday.

He said: “As new knowledge and technologies continually emerge from different countries and different sectors, it is important for (TCM practitioners) to embrace lifelong learning and continue to grow professionally.”

As of 2016, about 3,000 TCM physicians were registered with the TCM Practitioners’ Board, its latest annual report showed.

TCM practitioners must renew their licences every one or two years and pay a renewal fee of between S$225 and S$275 per year.

Under the existing voluntary continuing TCM education programme, practitioners will have to obtain at least 25 points a year, or accumulate a total of 50 in two years. The MOH will announce the points required for the compulsory programme once they have been finalised.

Points are calculated based on the length of training courses attended, which may comprise lectures, conferences, seminars and workshops.

For instance, an hour-long course may earn the physician one credit point while a full-day course may amass four points.

A similar point system is used for doctors trained in western medicine as a prerequisite to renew their licences.

Ms Tan Wan Yan, 24, one of the graduands at the convocation ceremony, said that she is looking forward to taking part in the continuing TCM education programme.

She said it will encourage her to “learn new things” and build up her knowledge.

To fund research and boost the capabilities of practitioners, the MOH will also be pumping S$10 million into two grants.

The first is the TCM Development Grant, which will receive S$5 million to support the skills development and training of practitioners as well as course providers, and to improve the operational efficiency of service providers. A portion of the funding will be used to “upgrade some clinics”, help them adopt IT solutions to improve access to the latest healthcare information and to enhance service delivery, Mr Chee added. Applications for this grant will open from January next year, and more details will be provided at a later date.

The other S$5 million will go into the TCM Research Grant over the next five years. This will promote collaborative research among public healthcare institutions, TCM industry players and institutes of higher learning.

Correction: In an earlier version of this story, we reported that once the continuing TCM education programme is made compulsory, practitioners will have to obtain at least 25 points a year, or accumulate a total of 50 in two years. That is incorrect. The 25 points a year is the existing requirement under the voluntary TCM education programme. The MOH has yet to decide on the points required for the compulsory programme. We are sorry for the error.