Traditional Medicine in Asia

institutions in addressing the critical
problems now being faced.
(8) How to finance traditional medicine
activities? Why?
Because, the introduction of traditional
medicine activities will require adequate
budgetary appropriations. A sound
programme and budget that maximizes
the effective use of all available resources
needs to be evolved.
(a) There is no single or simple approach
to the problem of how to involve
traditional practitioners in national
health systems, especially at the
primary health care level. Dedicated
and sincere action on the part of all
concerned will be required to foster a
collective effort to generate and
implement policies best suited to any
given country.
(b) The first step could be the establishment
of a National Council for Traditional
Medicine, that could be charged with
responsibility for preparing a national
strategy of laying down a broad plan
of action to be followed by the
Government. The Council should be
multidisciplinary and multisectoral in
nature, with appropriate representation
of the different types of traditional
practitioners involved.
(c) Major policy issues need to be
identified quickly, priorities determined
and mechanisms established to propose
the various options and courses of
action open to the Government, with
ad hoc groups being formed to tackle
specific issues.
(d) Adequate finance should be assured
under the Government’s regular
budget for the support and promotion
of traditional medicine activities.
External finance should be considered
as only supplementary to the
Government’s main effort.
Development of training programmes for traditional medicine
(e) In parallel with the work outlined
above, it will be necessary to undertake
a survey of the national situation in
respect of the practitioners, the
population’s preferences and needs,
resources, special problems, etc., upon
which a sound national health plan
reflecting the role of traditional
medicine may be formulated. Practitioners
of traditional medicine should
be engaged in these activities and the
results should be made widely known
to the general public as well as to the
health professions.
(f) The institution of practical, low-cost
traditional medicine activities need not
await the results of these surveys. One
of the first activities should be the
generation of a public debate that
should include special educational
efforts for the public (press, TV and
radio), distribution of information on
traditional medicine, and short courses
for traditional practitioners and
conventional health personnel, as an
initial step, to secure their involvement.
There are three basic changes and
reorientations that are needed in the
education and training programmes in
traditional medicine. Firstly, more attention
must be paid to problem-solving skills as
the current curricula are overburdened with
the pursuit of knowledge and information,
much of it is irrelevant to the priority tasks
needed to meet the health problems of
communities. The curricula also need to
be more problem-oriented and communityoriented,
if not community-based. In
addition, appropriate teaching and
learning strategies need to be developed
for traditional medicine practitioners to
work in teams.
Secondly, the education and training
programmes in traditional medicine need
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