Vietnam - Chinese-owned clinics: Selling sickness

“You are impotent!”

On September 7, a Tuoi Tre reporter came to Ky Tinh Chinese Medical Clinic, at 43 Kinh Duong Vuong, District 6, pretending to be a patient with erection disorder.

After asking about his conditions through an interpreter, a doctor took pulses on both his hands and said, “You are suffering impaired physiological nerve function, liver and kidney failure, obstructed blood circulation, and fatty liver. All of these indicate that you are impotent and if this condition is left untreated, it will become incurable.”

He then examined his tongue and said his impotence could be treated with a therapy applied for 20 days at a cost of VND250,000 ($12) per day for “normal” medicines and VND350,000-400,000 for “better” ones.

The reporter left after explaining to the interpreter that he had not brought enough money to pay.

Medicines without origin

Tran Trong Nghia, from Phu Nhuan District, who also came to Ky Tinh, said he was diagnosed with a sore throat which the doctor said might develop into cancer or other dangerous complications.

The doctor convinced Nghia that his condition would be cured within 20 days at a total cost of VND8 million worth of medicines.

Nghia agreed and was given medicines packed in paper bags on which, except for the name of the clinic, there was no information about the origin, name, manufacturer or date of expiry of the drugs.

“At risk of cancer”

At the Hien Dai clinic, at 337 Cong Hoa Street, Tan Binh District, a Tuoi Tre reporter with normal health was diagnosed to have “short breathing due to impaired lung function” and was warned that “this condition could lead to cancer.”

Similarly, he was asked to take medicines for the first treatment period of 20 days at VND400,000-500,000 per day, depending on the quality of the drug, and would be re-examined after 1 or 2 months.

The same ritual took place in some other clinics, like Truong An at 786 Hong Bang, District 11, and Tam Duc at 943-945-947 Tran Hung Dao Street, District 5.

At Truong An, patients had to pay on average VND250,000 per day for medicines, while at Tam Duc, the cost was up to VND600,000 per day.

Nine times more costly

L.T.T.M., 45, from Tay Ninh province, came to the Hien Dai oriental medicine clinic on August 27, after she was given a free copy of its “medical handbook” by a girl while on her way to the market.

A doctor at Hien Dai told M. that her disease was serious and she needed to take a kind of specific medicine worth VND350,000 per day for 30 days. As the cost was too high, M bought just 3 doses and some other medicines for VND2.1 million.

She later went to a drugstore on Hai Thuong Lan Ong Street in District 5 to look for the medicines in hope that the price was lower. She was very surprised to find each dose was worth only VND40,000!

Tonsillitis treatment through the nostril!

N.T.H. took her 10-year-old daughter, P.D.K., who suffered tonsillitis, to the Ear-Nose-Throat Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City for treatment. The doctor said the girl needed a vegetation adenoid (VA) removal.

Not wanting her daughter to be exposed to anesthetics that would be used in the surgery, she took her to Phuong Nam Oriental Medicine Clinic at 450 Ba Thang Hai Street, District 10 on July 28 to seek another treatment plan.

A Chinese doctor wearing no ID badge administered a certain drug inside the right nostril and told H. the VA would be destroyed, while the VA is in her mouth!

He told H. to return after 10 days for a similar therapy to the left nostril.

A few days after treatment, K’s face swelled up and some blood flowed out from the nostril. Thinking that the condition resulted from the “destructed” VA, she still took K. to the clinic and the same condition occurred again.

The two treatments together with medicines cost H. about VND7.7 million but K’s tonsillitis remained while the bleeding continued.

When she took her daughter back to the ENT Hospital, the doctors said they had to treat the ulcers at the nostrils before treatment of the VA could begin.

TUOI TRE

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