Pefots

Speech on the Launch of Pan European Federation of Traditional Chinese Medicine Societies

President of the PEFOTS Mr. Dong Zhi Lin (Dr of TCM)
29th September, 2001

Respected Ambassador ZHU Zu-Shou, the Chinese Embassy to the Netherlands Mr Emiel Van Galen, Head Section Homeopathics, Deputy-Secretary to the Dutch Medicines Evaluation Board, Friends, Ladies and Gentlemen: After nearly six months preparation, with the full support of the State Administration Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), help from colleagues of teaching, research staffs and TCM practitioners of European countries, today, the Pan-European Federation of Traditional Chinese Medicine Societies (PEFOTS) is formally established. At this delightful historical moment, as the president of the PEFOTS, I would like to express my sincere thanks to all friends and colleagues who have come to the meeting today. My sincere thanks also to those friends who have helped us in the past months. On behalf of the Committee of PEFOTS, I would like to pay respect to all our friends from such different and varied societies and backgrounds.

The launching of PEFOTS is an historic event in Europe. The launch of PEFOTS itself not only stands for the unity of all TCM practitioners in Europe, which will create a brand new phase of the practice of Chinese medicine, but also demonstrates that this new organisation will lead and promote Chinese medicine in Europe so as to gain legal status for all TCM practitioners in Europe.

As we all know, traditional Chinese medicine has been practiced for thousands of years. The efficacy and safety of Chinese medicine have been proven through thousands of years of clinical trials and current scientific research. This old healing art, as we understand, is gaining more and more popularity around the world today. Since Chinese medicine is a unique medical system, this medical practice is able to complement western orthodox medicine and other alternative therapies. We should pay special attention and treasure mankind's culture and civilisation. As the witness, we all have seen Chinese medicine dramatically develop throughout European countries for the last decades. Statistics show that there are more than 120,000 qualified TCM practitioners in Europe who have gained proper training in Acupuncture and Chinese medicine, either through European training institutes or through the Universities and colleges in the People's Republic of China. Among these TCM practitioners, some have already qualified as general medical doctors, dentists and physiotherapists. Of these 120,000 TCM practitioners, most practice mainly acupuncture, only 30-40% are practicing both acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine. In some countries in Europe, the cost of acupuncture treatment of the patients has been covered by the National Health Service; in some countries, patients only pay a small amount of the costs when receiving acupuncture treatments. Some private medical insurance companies' policy cover Chinese herbal medicine and Chinese massage treatment costs. There are over 200 TCM institutes in Europe, training 3,000 TCM practitioners each year. There are over 20 universities and medical schools or colleges in Europe which provide TCM training programmes. The teaching staffs at these training institutes are chosen mainly from their own graduates; some of the professors and lecturers come from China. There are over 200 TCM and acupuncture organisations and societies in Europe with from 15 to 1,000 members of each organisation and society. There are over 200 trading companies which import Chinese medicinal products. Unfortunately, there is no single organisation which co-ordinates and promotes TCM in Europe. The statutory status of TCM practitioners has not yet been formally recognised. The training programmes of TCM have not been recognised by the governments. The costs of Chinese medicine by the consumers have not been completely covered by National Health Service. In order to alter these situations, we understand it is time for all TCM people to unite together and act. There were over 15 European countries' delegations representing TCM practitioners and researchers gathered together at the beginning of this year. After heated discussion, we all strongly felt that it is extremely necessary to set up a Pan-European Federation of TCM Societies at this moment. Fortunately, the Chinese government helped us a great deal while we were preparing this federation. Professor Yu Jing, Vice-Minister of the Health Department and Director of the State Administration for TCM, visited the Netherlands. After consultation with the experts and TCM practitioners, Professor Yu pointed out that unity of all TCM organisations is the only direction to develop TCM in the Europe. Unity will produce tremendous power to develop TCM. We can see, from here, the birth of the Pan-Europe Federation of TCM Societies is not only the result of the development of TCM, but also of the hard work of all TCM friends and colleagues.

As a non-governmental organisation, we understand that the Pan-European Federation of TCM Societies is going to face challenges from different aspects in the new millennium. In order to effectively achieve our goals and tasks, I would like to let you all know that the new Committee of PEFOTS will lead and build this organisation in a more democratic manner working more efficiently. Currently, we will emphasise and enhance the power of committees working at the legislative, educational, public relations levels, and the ethics and quality control of TCM practice. There are five main aspects upon which we must work :

To activate academic and professional education and development of TCM;
To enhance the communication and dialogue with individual European governments; to gain legal status of TCM in Europe and to promote recognition of Chinese medicine by the National Health Services.
To set up an ethics committee for TCM practice, publish standardised TCM textbooks;
To reinforce the quality control of Chinese medicinal products imported from China assisted by the government's medicines control agency.
To unite all organisations of TCM in Europe so as to set up a proper agenda in the near future;

We fully understand that as the first committee of the Pan-European Federation of Traditional Chinese Medicine Societies, we can expect huge work loads and extraordinary pressure, which must be overcome. However, we are also absolutely sure that with the support of all our TCM friends and colleagues, under the leadership of the Pan-European Federation of Traditional Chinese Medicine Societies, the future for the development of Chinese medicine in Europe is brighter and will become even more so.