TRADITIONAL AND COMPLEMENTARY MEDICINE UNIT

Malaysia being a multi-racial country, has a rich heritage of various traditional medicine practices, each origins from different ethnic groups. Recognizing the importance and widespread use of traditional and complementary medicine (T&CM), the Ministry of Health (MOH) had launched the National T&CM Policy in 2001 with a vision to integrate T&CM into national healthcare system. In 2008 T&CM units were established at Hospital Putrajaya, Hospital Kepala Batas (Pulau Pinang) and Hospital Sultan Ismail (Johor Bahru) as a pilot project.

Traditional and Complementary Medicine Unit in Hospital Putrajaya started to operate on 3rd March 2008 by offering traditional Malay massage and acupuncture treatments for post stroke and chronic pain patients. The treatments intend to help improve stroke patients’ rehabilitation and reducing the pain in chronic pain patients. Chronic pain is defined as persistent pain such as migraine, knee pain, back pain and others. Later on 1st October 2008, the unit has added herbal treatment into the service. Herbal treatment is provided for cancer patients as an adjunct to conventional cancer treatment. Malay postnatal care is another new service introduced on 17th July 2009 and in 2012 expanded its postnatal service to Pusat Bersalin Berisiko Rendah (PBBR) Presint 8, Putrajaya.

TREATMENT

A) TRADITIONAL MALAY MASSAGE
B) MALAY POSTNATAL CARE
C) ACUPUNCTURE

TRADITIONAL MALAY MASSAGE

Traditional Malay medicine embraces many different treatments namely malay massage, fracture massage, herbal treatment, post natal care, senaman Melayu, and cupping.

Currently at the T&CM unit, Malay massage is indicated for chronic pain and post stroke patients. The masseur will only massage the affected area, not the whole body. Chronic pain does not cover chronic diseases (such as hypertension, diabetes and others) and acute condition (namely sprain, factures, etc). Patients may experience few side effects such as temporary pain or discomfort, bruise, swelling and allergic to massage oil following massage treatment.

MALAY POSTNATAL CARE

Malay Postnatal care is only provided to mothers who gave birth through normal delivery in Hospital Putrajaya and PBBR. Despite a wide range of Malay postnatal massage available in Malaysia, only Malay postnatal wellness massage (breast care) and midwifery care are available in this unit.

Breast care involves breast massage and the mothers are taught the techniques on how to perform proper massage at home as this will help in establishing milk production and at the same time provide them with confidence to breastfeed their infants

At T&CM Unit, the midwifery care practice includes whole body massage, hot compression (bertungku) and body wrapping/binding (bengkung). Massage increases circulation which helps with the removal of excess fluids, reduces swelling and speeds the total healing process. It is usually carried out on the 6th to 8th day after normal delivery and on the 39th to 41st day of confinement period.

ACUPUNCTURE

Acupuncture is a branch of Traditional Chinese Medicine which mainly involves the theory of meridians, location, usage, indications and combinations of acupoints, needling manipulations. Acupuncture is done to unblock Qi (i.e internal energy) by inserting needles at particular points on the body. Through modern scientific point of view, needling the acupuncture points stimulates the nervous system to release chemicals in the muscles, spinal cord, and brain. These chemical will either change the experience of pain (e.g. endogenous opiod neuropeptides) or they will trigger the release of other chemicals and hormones which influence the body’s own internal regulating system.

Acupuncture is performed by inserting sterilised disposable needles, applying heat or electrical stimulation at a precise acupuncture points. This is to encourage body natural healing and to improve body function.

In this unit, the acupuncture treatment is only indicated for chronic pain and post stroke. Acupuncture patients may experience few side effects such as dizzy, pain during insertion or withdrawal of acupuncture needle and local pain after acupuncture needle being withdraw.

 
HOW TO MAKE AN APPOINTMENT?

 1.  Get a REFERRAL LETTER from your doctor. And in the case of herbal treatment, patients need to be referred by Specialist or Oncologist. Thus, upon making an appointment, please bring along the referral letter to our T&CM unit.

2.  Appointment date will be given after:

    a) Our staff on duty has verified that the treatment you’ve chosen suits you and within our scope of service.
    b) You had agreed to comply with TWO TREATMENT SESSIONS PER WEEK. (This applies to acupuncture and Malay massage).

Official T&CM MOH website:  http://tcm.moh.gov.my/