Irregular development of specialized TCM programs, a shortage of TCM professionals, limited diversity in the application of appropriate TCM techniques, and underdeveloped information technology infrastructure—these were once common challenges faced by grassroots TCM hospitals in poverty-stricken areas of Chongqing.

In recent years, Chongqing Municipality has vigorously implemented a project to enhance the service capabilities of county-level TCM hospitals in poverty-stricken areas, making concerted efforts on multiple fronts to strengthen their overall service capacity, improve the quality and accessibility of TCM services, and achieve remarkable results. As a result, residents now find it more convenient and reassuring to seek medical care, and their sense of satisfaction with TCM services has significantly increased.

“I had never been to the county TCM hospital for treatment before, but after being admitted this time, I found that both the doctors’ clinical skills and their service attitude are excellent—so I feel completely at ease,” said a satisfied patient in the inpatient department of the Yunyang County TCM Hospital in Chongqing.

Patients’ peace of mind stems from the hospital’s continuous enhancement of its service capabilities. In recent years, Yunyang County Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital has focused on developing TCM–specific specialty departments with distinctive strengths. The hospital currently boasts two Chongqing municipal–level key TCM specialties—Orthopedics and Anorectal Surgery—and one municipal–level TCM特色 specialty—Acupuncture. In addition, a Chongqing municipal–level key TCM specialty in Nephrology is under construction, while the Cardiology Department has been certified by the China Chest Pain Center Headquarters as a “China Primary Care Chest Pain Center.”

Notably, in order to keep the local population healthy, reduce the incidence of illness, delay the onset of disease, and prevent serious illnesses—thereby enhancing their quality of life—the Yunyang County Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital has vigorously promoted the TCM preventive healthcare initiative, with the aim of establishing the hospital’s Center for Preventive Healthcare as its new signature feature.

“The hospital’s ‘treatment of disease before it manifests’ service utilizes traditional Chinese medicine–based constitution identification, combined with TCM diagnostic instruments such as the Four Diagnostic Apparatus and the Meridian Detection Device, to assess individuals’ health status, provide risk alerts and early intervention, and deliver targeted TCM-based health conditioning, thereby achieving the goal of ‘preventing disease before it occurs, preventing complications once disease has developed, and preventing recurrence after recovery.’” According to the head of the Prevention of Disease Center at Yunyang County Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, the center has currently established specialized stations for managing sleep disorders, chronic diseases, obesity, traditional TCM therapies, healthy dietary practices, and skin beauty, enabling it to offer tailored, personalized TCM interventions for different population groups.

In addition to offering evidence-based TCM practices such as constitutional assessment, meridian detection, moxibustion, ear acupoint pressing with seeds, and acupoint patch application, the center has also introduced advanced TCM nursing techniques including Du-moxibustion, navel moxibustion, copper-bi scraping, and wrist-ankle acupuncture. These are complemented by herbal teas, constitution-specific teas, medicinal diets, and medicinal congee, thereby providing high-quality TCM nursing care for outpatients and delivering ongoing TCM health guidance to discharged patients.

A shortage of discipline leaders, weak recruitment and allocation of mid- and high-level talent pools, and a low proportion of highly educated professionals—these have long been common challenges in grassroots TCM hospitals in impoverished areas of Chongqing, driven by economic constraints and unfavorable working conditions.

“Cultivating a contingent of highly skilled and well-qualified TCM professionals and building an outstanding TCM workforce are crucial for achieving the sustainable development of grassroots TCM hospitals in impoverished areas and for enhancing these hospitals’ capacity to deliver TCM services,” said the head of the Kaizhou District TCM Hospital in Chongqing. The hospital has incorporated TCM personnel development into its overall development plan and annual work schedule. In recent years, it has steadily intensified efforts to attract talent, ensuring a robust pipeline of future leaders while encouraging professional and technical staff to pursue further education and advance their professional titles, thereby strengthening the ranks of discipline leaders and bolstering the TCM workforce. Since 2019, the hospital has recruited 11 graduates with bachelor’s or master’s degrees in TCM; currently, TCM personnel account for 61.07% of the hospital’s total medical staff, and TCM–certified physicians comprise 61.90% of all licensed physicians. In 2020, the hospital sent three staff members to Chongqing Municipal TCM Hospital for advanced training and submitted applications for eight others to participate in short-term training programs in Weifang City, Shandong Province. The hospital places great emphasis on mentorship, having successively organized citywide and district/county–level mentor–apprentice programs, initiatives to inherit the academic expertise of renowned TCM practitioners, and three rounds of in-house mentor–apprentice programs.

In Chengkou County, which borders Kaizhou District, the Chengkou County Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine has likewise launched proactive measures to strengthen its TCM talent pool. The hospital has established and refined a long-term mechanism for TCM knowledge training, sending key clinical personnel to higher-level TCM hospitals for advanced studies and dispatching leading TCM practitioners to Chongqing’s renowned mentorship programs, thereby enhancing the professional competence of medical staff. In addition, nursing staff are sent to specialized TCM nursing training courses to bolster the development of TCM-specialized nursing professionals. The hospital’s Nursing Department has also taken the lead in establishing a “Guidance Group for Leveraging the Distinctive Features of TCM Nursing,” which provides TCM nursing education and training on appropriate techniques to healthcare workers at township health centers, standardizes the operational protocols for TCM nursing practices in these facilities, and elevates the professional qualifications and TCM nursing capabilities of township health center personnel.

“I suffer from periarthritis of the shoulder, bronchitis, and duodenal ulcer—you could say I’m plagued by ailments all over. In the past, I was in and out of the hospital every other day. But since I started applying Sanfu patches four years ago, my health has improved dramatically. I no longer need to go to the hospital as often, which has saved me a considerable amount in medical expenses. Truly, an appropriate traditional therapy like Sanfu patches is a real blessing for ordinary people like us.” Mr. Zhao, a 66-year-old resident of Qianjiang District in Chongqing, has experienced the benefits of Sanfu-patch therapy firsthand and has once again come to the Qianjiang District Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital this year to receive the treatment.

Qianjiang District Central Hospital is the earliest medical institution in Qianjiang District to implement the “treating winter diseases in summer” therapy. It has been providing Sanfu patch therapy for nine consecutive years, having administered this treatment to more than 10,000 patients to date. Due to its remarkable efficacy, the therapy has earned widespread acclaim from residents in the surrounding areas.

According to a responsible official from the Qianjiang District Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital, during this year’s Sanfu period, in addition to providing Sanfu patch therapy to the public, the hospital will also continue to offer training on Sanfu patch knowledge and techniques to medical staff at township health centers across Qianjiang District. Furthermore, the hospital will dispatch its own medical personnel to these township health centers to assist them in concurrently implementing Sanfu patch therapy, thereby meeting the needs of grassroots residents. In addition, the hospital will organize medical teams to visit local senior apartments and nursing homes to provide free Sanfu patch diagnosis and treatment services, enabling more members of the public to experience this distinctive therapeutic approach and appreciate its efficacy.

In addition to the Qianjiang District Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital, grassroots TCM hospitals across poverty-stricken areas of Chongqing Municipality have made the promotion of appropriate TCM techniques a key component of efforts to enhance their capacity to deliver TCM services. Take the Shizhu County TCM Hospital as an example: the hospital has continuously conducted training and outreach programs on appropriate TCM techniques, ensuring that all township hospitals and village health stations in the county master at least 10 such techniques, while also implementing more than 45 appropriate TCM techniques within its own facilities. As a result, local residents are able to benefit from TCM services that are more targeted and offer a broader range of content.

Mr. Chen, a 67-year-old resident of Wanzhou District in Chongqing, was diagnosed with rectal cancer four months ago. Given his advanced age and limited energy, he chose not to travel to a major hospital in downtown Chongqing to seek treatment from specialist physicians, opting instead for conservative care in the Department of Anorectal Surgery at the Wanzhou District Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital. “I never imagined that, through a large screen, experts from the Chongqing Municipal Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine in the city center could actually provide me with medical consultation—what a wonderful development!” praised Mr. Chen, who is currently receiving telemedicine services.

“The telemedicine system has truly provided tremendous assistance to medical institutions in impoverished areas!” Speaking about remote diagnosis and treatment, a responsible official from the Wanzhou District Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital said with deep conviction, “In the past, if our local patients wanted to seek treatment in Chongqing’s main urban area, they not only had to bear various medical expenses—such as transportation costs, food and lodging, and lost wages—but the long distance could also compromise the accuracy of diagnosis, delay treatment, and increase patient suffering. Now, fortunately, patients can access the outstanding physician resources of Chongqing’s leading TCM hospitals without even leaving their hometown.”

In recent years, the Wanzhou District Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital has actively promoted telemedicine services. To date, it has established a telemedicine system connected to the Chongqing Municipal TCM Hospital and has conducted multiple remote consultations. The hospital has also completed the development plan for an in-hospital telemedicine service system and plans to collaborate with the Wanzhou Branch of Chongqing Telecom to build a telemedicine platform that will link six affiliated medical consortium units and provide remote consultation services.

Today, the provision of telemedicine services has become increasingly commonplace in TCM hospitals located in impoverished areas of Chongqing.

The Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital of Kaizhou District in Chongqing has established the Kaizhou District Telemedicine Center, which is currently connected to the Shandong Provincial Telemedicine Center and the Chongqing Municipal TCM Hospital’s Telemedicine Sub-center. The center routinely conducts remote consultations, ward rounds, and educational lectures. It is also piloting the establishment of a telemedicine information platform with two primary-level medical institutions, with plans to gradually expand the number of participating facilities. Meanwhile, the Pengshui County TCM Hospital in Chongqing has set up a remote consultation system in collaboration with the Sanyi Township Health Center, using the hospital’s Department of Cardiovascular Medicine and its electrocardiography unit as consultation workstations. ECG data from the Sanyi Township Health Center are transmitted in real time, and the consultation team at the workstation issues remote ECG diagnoses. In addition, with support from two higher-level hospitals, the Yunyang County TCM Hospital has established a “TCM Clinic Health Information Platform” in partnership with grassroots township health centers, offering services such as online education, remote consultations, access to and use of classic prescription databases, and upload of examination results.

From southeastern to northwestern Chongqing, the capacity of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) services in TCM hospitals in poverty-stricken areas of the municipality is steadily strengthening, with efforts continuously underway to develop distinctive TCM brands, thereby enhancing the public’s sense of gain in accessing TCM care.