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Clinical services

Consulting & advisory

顾问与咨询

Advisory, educational and quality-assurance work for practitioners, clinics, suppliers, insurers and organisations. We review, teach and report — we do not sell clinical outcomes, and we do not offer a shortcut past the evidence.

Services

What the college offers organisations and professionals

Five areas of work, all of them advisory or educational. Each is scoped individually, delivered in writing, and priced on enquiry.

For practitioners, clinics and insurers

Clinical advisory and second opinions

An independent, written opinion on a Chinese medicine prescription or treatment plan, prepared by senior college staff who still practise. Useful where a case is not responding, where a formula needs reviewing before dispensing, or where a third party needs an expert view of what is standard practice.

What it involves

  • Review of the case record you supply, against the classical framework and current prescribing practice
  • Comment on formula construction, herb doses, points selected, and stated frequency or duration
  • Identification of safety issues: contraindications, interactions, pregnancy and paediatric considerations, and toxicological limits
  • A written opinion, with reasoning, and a short call to discuss it

Who it is for

Practising acupuncturists and herbalists, multi-disciplinary clinics, insurers and medico-legal teams, and education providers assessing clinical competence.

How it is delivered

Remote by default, on the papers you provide. In-person case discussion can be arranged at the London campus. We ask for the full record; an opinion on a partial file is of limited value and we will say so.

For suppliers, dispensaries and retailers

Herbal quality and supply-chain review

Chinese herbs are a regulated commodity with a long and well-documented history of substitution and adulteration. We review what you buy, how it is identified, how it is stored and how it is labelled — and we tell you where the risks are.

What it involves

  • Identification review: macroscopic and organoleptic checking of supplied materials against pharmacopoeial descriptions
  • Adulteration and substitution risk assessment, including the species most commonly confused and the tests that distinguish them
  • Review of your testing regime and supplier documentation, including certificates of analysis
  • COSHH assessment and labelling compliance review for dispensaries and retail packaging
  • Dispensing, storage and stock-rotation practice, including controlled and toxic substances

Who it is for

Importers, wholesalers, dispensaries, retail brands, clinic owners and anyone preparing for a regulatory or trading standards conversation.

How it is delivered

Desk review of your documentation, combined with a visit to your premises or a sample send-in where physical inspection is needed. Findings are provided in writing, ranked by risk, with practical remedial actions.

For employers and education providers

Training and CPD design

We design and deliver teaching for organisations that need their staff to understand Chinese medicine properly — whether that is a clinical team adding a modality, a regulator needing an informed perspective, or a curriculum that has to stand up to validation.

What it involves

  • Learning-needs analysis and definition of intended outcomes
  • Curriculum, session plans, assessment design and quality assurance
  • Delivery by college teaching staff, or train-the-trainer delivery for your own team
  • Evaluation, feedback analysis and a written review after each cohort

Who it is for

Education providers, professional bodies, NHS and private clinical teams, care providers and employers with an interest in traditional medicine.

How it is delivered

On your premises, at the college, or online. Courses can be accredited through the college's own quality processes or mapped to an external framework — see our accreditation and partnerships work.

For media, publishers and researchers

Expert comment and research collaboration

The college provides informed comment on Chinese medicine in the UK — what the tradition holds, what the evidence supports, and where the two are routinely confused in public debate. We are as willing to set out the limits of the evidence as its strengths.

What it involves

  • Background briefings, interviews and quoted comment for print, broadcast and online media
  • Fact-checking and review of draft material for accuracy about Chinese medicine
  • Research collaboration, including study design input, clinical expertise and access to the college's teaching clinic for approved projects
  • Speaking at conferences, lectures and public events

Who it is for

Journalists, broadcasters, publishers, academic researchers, and policy or standards bodies.

How it is delivered

Briefings by telephone, video call or in person, and written comment by email. Research collaboration is agreed in writing, with ethics approval and data protection arrangements settled before any work begins.

For employers

Workplace wellbeing

Educational and wellbeing programmes for employers: lunchtime lectures, in-house health literacy teaching, on-site Tui Na days and seasonal workshops. These are delivered as education and workplace wellbeing, not as medical treatment.

What it involves

  • A programme scoped to your organisation, your sector and your shift patterns
  • Delivery on your premises or online, by qualified practitioners and teaching staff
  • Risk assessment and insurance checking before anything is delivered on your site
  • Feedback and a short written review after each programme

Who it is for

Employers, HR and wellbeing leads, clinics, care providers and membership organisations.

How it is delivered

On site or online, at times that suit your operation. Corporate Membership gives preferential programme rates and a named contact at the college.

Working together

How an engagement works

Every piece of work follows the same five stages. Nothing is chargeable until you have a written proposal in front of you and have approved it.
  1. Stage 1

    Enquiry

    You send us the outline through the enquiry form: what the question is, who it is for, and any deadline. A paragraph is enough to start.
  2. Stage 2

    Scoping call

    A short call, at no cost, to establish whether we are the right people for the work and what it would take. If the answer is that you need someone else — a doctor, a lawyer, a different specialist — we will say so at this point rather than later.
  3. Stage 3

    Written proposal

    A written scope: what we will do, what we will need from you, who will do it, the timescale, and the fee. Fees are quoted per engagement — enquire for fees. Nothing proceeds without your written approval.
  4. Stage 4

    Delivery

    The work itself: document review, sample inspection, teaching or site visit. You have a named contact at the college for the duration, and a clear date for the report or the sessions.
  5. Stage 5

    Review

    We send the written output, talk it through with you, and agree what happens next. Where a finding needs action, we rank it by risk so that you can sequence the work sensibly.

Limits

What advisory work is not

Consulting is often confused with clinical practice, and with endorsement. It is neither. Being precise about that protects you as much as it protects us.
  • It is not treatment for your patients

    We do not take over a case, prescribe for a patient we have not examined, or accept clinical responsibility for someone else's patient. The treating practitioner remains responsible for the patient, and for deciding whether to follow our reasoning.

  • It is not a promise of an outcome

    Nothing in an advisory engagement is a prediction that a treatment will work, or a representation that a condition can be treated, cured or prevented. We comment on practice, quality and reasoning — not on results we cannot control.

  • It is not regulatory or legal advice

    We can tell you what good practice looks like, and where the risks in a process lie. We cannot give legal advice or act as your regulator, and where a matter needs a solicitor or a trading standards conversation we will say so.

  • It is not an endorsement

    A review, a training contract or a membership does not mean the college endorses a product, a supplier, a clinic or a therapeutic claim. We do not allow our name to be used in advertising without written agreement.

On the evidence base

Where an advisory opinion touches on the evidence for a treatment or a product, we will state the position as it actually is. For some chronic pain presentations the trial evidence is modest but real; for many other claims it is thin, inconsistent or absent altogether. A second opinion that overstates the evidence is of no use to a practitioner, an insurer or a court. Our articles set out our position at length.

Educational content notice

Content on this website describes Chinese medicine as it is taught and practised historically and is provided for educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat or cure any condition. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional about your own health, and never delay or stop conventional treatment because of something you have read here.

Clients

Who we work with

Most engagements come from five kinds of organisation. If yours does not fit one of these descriptions, ask anyway — the answer may still be yes.
  • Practitioners and clinics

    Second opinions on difficult cases, formula review before dispensing, CPD, and help with clinical governance and record-keeping.

    Short courses & CPD

  • Insurers and medico-legal teams

    Independent written opinion on whether a course of care, a prescription or a consent process met the standard expected of a competent practitioner.

    Governance & quality

  • Suppliers, dispensaries and retailers

    Identification and adulteration risk review, testing regimes, COSHH and labelling compliance, and dispensing standards.

    Discuss a review

  • Education providers

    Curriculum and assessment design, validation support, external examining, and teaching delivered by practising clinicians.

    Accreditation & partnerships

  • Employers

    Workplace wellbeing programmes, in-house health literacy teaching, and policy advice on supporting staff who use traditional medicine.

    Corporate wellbeing

  • Media, publishers and researchers

    Expert comment, fact-checking, background briefings and research collaboration with access to the teaching clinic.

    Articles & insight

Enquire

Start with the question, not the contract

Tell us what you need reviewed, designed or taught. A short scoping conversation costs nothing and usually establishes within twenty minutes whether we can help.
Email
enquiries@scmat.org.uk
Telephone
+44 (0)20 7946 0000 · Monday–Friday, 09:00–17:30
Post
SCMAT UK Head Office1 Example SquareLondonEC1A 1AA

Send us an enquiry

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How this form works

The site is served statically and no form backend is connected yet, so the form opens your own email application with the message already written. Nothing reaches the college until you send that email — which also means your draft stays on your own device. More on this.

Discuss a project with the college

Second opinions, herb quality reviews, CPD design, expert comment or workplace programmes — send us the outline and we will tell you honestly whether we are the right people for it.