Governor Gavin Newsom has retracted the proposed budget cuts to the Medi-Cal acupuncture program for low-income Californians for the 2024-2025 budget year. This decision marks a significant victory for health care providers and advocates who have long championed acupuncture as a vital component of comprehensive medical care.
First TCM Hospital Opens in Macao
The Macao Special Administrative Region of China has announced the opening of its first traditional Chinese medicine hospital. The hospital will be based at the Macao University of Science and Technology in Taipa, and will be run in conjunction with the Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
The new 60-bed facility will be used as a training hospital for Macao's faculty of Chinese medicine and the Institute for Applied Research in Medicine and Health to provide greater depth in the training of practitioners and the treatment of patients through traditional Chinese medicine. According to Zhou Li Gao, Macao University's vice rector, the hospital will help "to show the advantages of Chinese medicine, even as an adjunct to Western practices like surgery."
Timothy Chan, director of the Institute for Applied Research in Medicine and Health, said that research conducted at the hospital will be supported by the Macao government.
"People here are more inclined to make it work," Chan said. "We are better able to establish a network, and that's the key to the success" of the hospital.