Sites for four more Chinese medicine clinics are being identified in addition to the existing 14 clinics. Chow said the government is incorporating Chinese medicine services into the public health system "on an incremental basis."

"A larger scale of Chinese and Western medicines shared care services will be considered to be incorporated in the proposed Chinese medicine building under the Kwong Wah Hospital Redevelopment Project," Chow told the Legislative Council yesterday in a written reply.

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However, details are sketchy. "The project is at its early planning stage," a Hospital Authority spokeswoman said last night.

Kwong Wah Hospital and Tung Wah Hospital opened integrated Chinese and Western medicine treatment centers in 2006. A third center was established in March this year at TWGHs Fung Yiu King Hospital.

Chow said the government is identifying suitable sites in the Kowloon City, Yau Tsim Mong, Southern, and Islands districts for establishing more Chinese medicine clinics. The 14 existing clinics catered to 312,281 people last year.

The clinics operate under a "tripartite model of clinic collaboration" with non-governmental organizations and local universities, the Hospital Authority spokeswoman said.

Through the authority, the government provides partial subsidy to the clinics, while the NGOs operate them on a self-financing basis. The authority provides training to junior Chinese medicine practitioners, while the universities provide expertise and supervisors in clinical training and research.

Historically, Chinese medicine is provided by private herbalists. As at October 31, there were 6,120 registered Chinese medicine practitioners and 2,793 listed herbalists in Hong Kong.

Chow also said the coverage of the Hong Kong Chinese Materia Medica Standards, which set safety and quality standards for commonly used herbal medicines, will be extended from the current 60 products to about 200.