A Word About Core Competencies

This correspondence is from an interested member of the association.
We thought we should share it with you.

I've had some time this week to take a close look at the recently posted Core Competencies for Dr.TCM. I am frankly a little worried about the inclusion of so much Western DIAGNOSTICS in the document.

We are not allowed to practise western medicine without a licence, and I hope the sections on techniques of common diagnosis and treatment mean merely that we should simply have knowledge of what a patient may have been through.

If a test doesn't assist me in formulating a diagnosis of "damp heat" or "phlegm obstruction", etc., then I don't need to know how to do it. This is not Chinese Medicine, and when the College of Physicians and Surgeons see this document, we may be in trouble. We could very well lose the Dr. title.

One has to know the history of GETTING the title of Dr. from the Government in the first place -- they made the College promise that the Doctors would be further trained -- in Chinese Medicine, not Western medicine. The problem here is that doctors trained in China may be taking the curriculum that THEY learned in China and transferring it here

Saying that "this is what is included in the scope of practise in China" holds no water here. The practice of Classical Chinese Medicine is all but washed away in China now. (Mao forced Western Medicine and TCM together, and that is what is now taught, leaning more toward Western Medicine each year as China strives to achieve approval and acceptance from Western countries.).

And we have Western Medicine Drs watching us very closely. How can we include lumbar puncture and sigmoidoscopy in our Core Competencies??? and “Diagnosis steps and thoughts in Western Medicine”??? Why don't we throw in Ayruvedic Medicine Diagnostic steps too??