Shanghai's legislature on Wednesday approved a bill to include traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in the city's public health emergency management system, aiming to ensure citizens' access to high-quality TCM services and to raise the status of TCM.

The bill, passed by the Standing Committee of the Shanghai Municipal People's Congress, will take effect on May 1.

It states that all levels of relative government departments shall take measures to guarantee TCM services are accessible to all residents, and promote embedding TCM in Shanghai's family doctor system.

Social organizations are encouraged to build TCM institutes, including clinics and hospitals, and private TCM institutes should enjoy the same rights as public medicine institutes.

The bill also places importance on the quality of Chinese medicinal materials. Relative parties, including medical material producers and agents, should build information-tracking systems for the materials to ensure the purchase and sale of records, as well as the origin of materials, can be traced. 

Shanghai's recent move is to implement the TCM Law of the People's Republic of China passed in 2016. It aims to raise the status of TCM by requiring local governments to launch TCM institutions in all medical centers, increasing funding for its development and widening the scale of TCM education.