Singapore’s traditional Chinese medicine clinics see rise in patients with serious pandemic side effects

Unlike Hong Kong, Singapore does not use TCM to treat Covid-19. But people are nevertheless seeking out practitioners to help manage their well-being

Issues include domestic abuse, anxiety, posture problems and even erectile dysfunction, which one practitioner attributes to more sex – and cycling

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Dr Wong Lin Ho (L) and Professor Wong Pang Ong treat a patient with traditional Chinese medicine in Singapore clinic Ong Fujian Chinese Physician Hall. Photo: Facebook

Published: 8:00am, 10 Apr 2022Updated: 9:59am, 11 Apr 2022

When a patient walked into Wong Lin Ho’s traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) clinic last year with bruises she claimed were sustained during a bad fall, the 32-year-old director of Ong Fujian Chinese Physician Hall suspected something was not right.

When Wong asked the patient for details, he found her story inconsistent. It fed his suspicions that she might have been domestically abused.

“There is a distinct difference between the types of sprains, bruises and injuries caused by falling, compared to injuries caused by intentional physical harm,” said Wong, who has a degree in both TCM and Western medicine.

Dr Wong Lin Ho with a patient in Singapore TCM clinic, Ong Fujian Chinese Physician Hall. Photo: Handout

Wong has been seeing more patients with injuries that seem to stem from physical abuse in the past two years amid the Covid-19 pandemic. He said he would see one such patient every few months before 2020 but this had now increased to at least one a month, most of them women.

His observations come as Singapore, along with many other countries worldwide, has experienced a rise in domestic abuse cases during the pandemic.