TCM finally catches up with western medicine

angry doc and Dr Oz bloke have often wondered aloud on this blog why it is that patients never seem to complain about adverse outcomes when they are under the care of TCM physicians, the way they do when under the care of western medicine. In the comments section of an earlier post, angry doc speculated that "with 'mainstream' hospitals now housing TCM practices on the premises, expectations will change and I think it will be a matter of time before it happens".

It seems like angry doc's prediction is coming true:


Physician's needle joke ends in pain for patient

ON SATURDAY, I visited the new Bao Zhong Tang TCM Centre at Singapore General Hospital for the second time. For pain in my lower back and hip, a senior physician administered about 15 acupuncture needles to my back, waist, hip and thighs.

As soon as the last needle was inserted, the physician left the room to attend to other patients. About 20 minutes later, another physician came to remove the needles.

As he was not the one who administered the needles, I asked whether he had removed all of them. He said jokingly that if there was any he missed removing, I could keep it as a souvenir.

When I turned around and sat up on the bed, I felt a sharp pain in my right thigh. The physician simply pulled out the needle, as if nothing serious had happened.

Should a physician who administered acupuncture needles on a patient let another remove them?

What if a missed needle gets thrust deeper into a patient's acupressure point when he rolls over to get up?

Would it cause great injury?

I hope what I had experienced was just a sharp pain. I did not take the souvenir.

Lim Chye Hin


Such, perhaps, is the price of being 'mainstream'.

TCM has finally 'arrived'.