A NEW $2.8 million Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) clinic will open next month in the Singapore General Hospital.

The new Bao Zhong Tang, which means 'Treasury Hall' in Chinese, is a joint venture between Singhealth and its equivalent counterpart, the ShangHai Hospital Development Centre (SHDC), which manages 23 hospitals in the Chinese city.

According to SingHealth administrators, the new centre will provide a premium-level service.

Patients who are keen on trying an alternative will be seen by some of the best TCM physicians from Shanghai, and the treatment herbs will be imported direct from China.

A specialist will oversee the brewing of your medication before it is delivered to you.

Ms Charity Wai, who leads the Bao Zhong Tang project at SingHealth said the premium service would target patients from the region.

'We're talking about very high standards of TCM treatment,' she said.

Bao Zhong Tang is part of an overarching deal between SingHealth and the SHDC, signed in September last year.

Besides building new medical facilities like the Bao Zhong Tang, SingHealth will train SHDC doctors and administrators on the finer points of hospital management.

The TCM physicians will also colloborate with SGH doctors on several research topics.

This is to see if Chinese medicine can help patients who, for some reasons, are resistant to current medical interventions.