Vietnam - All HCMC Chinese clinics broke law, 4 suspended

All of the Chinese clinics in Ho Chi Minh City have been found violating relevant regulations, and four of them have had their operations suspended for up to 12 months. Today, an inspection team will check work permits that have been issued to foreigners at the clinics.

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In a recent report to the city People’s Committee and the Health Ministry, the HCMC Health Department said the seven clinics invested by Chinese or employing Chinese doctors have committed a series of violations, such as employing doctors without practitioners’ licenses, issuing false diagnoses, overcharging patients, selling expired or unapproved medicine, and offering unlicensed services.

Of these clinics, four have had their license revoked for 6 to 12 months, depending on violation levels, said Dr Nguyen Tan Binh, director of the department.

The suspended facilities are the branch of the Chinese Medical Clinic at 141 Phan Dang Luu Street, Phu Nhuan District; Anh Sang Oriental Medicine Clinic at 928 Lac Long Quan, Ward 9, Tan Binh District; Hue Ha Traditional Medicine Clinic at 199 Nguyen Chi Thanh Street, Ward 12, District 5; and Dong Phuong Traditional Medicine Diagnosis and Treatment Clinic at 762 Cach Mang Thang Tam Street, Ward 5, Tan Binh District.

The department has given administrative fines totaling VND140 million (US$6,720) to each clinic and transferred a case of suspected fake advertising licenses and a list of foreign health workers practicing without a license to local police for investigation.

The department will also revoke licenses from the foreign health workers who do not meet requirements for practicing at four Chinese clinics, Binh said.

Currently, 41 Chinese doctors have been licensed to practice in 16 provinces and cities nationwide, including 11 doctors in seven clinics in HCMC and seven others in five health facilities in Hanoi, said Nguyen Hoang Son, deputy head of the Health Ministry’s Traditional Medicine and Pharmacy Department.

The ministry will strengthen control over Chinese clinics’ operation, tighten regulations on granting practitioner’s licenses to foreigner doctors, and will strictly punish violators, Son said.

Today, July 12, an inspection team from the HCMC Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs will visit Chinese clinics operating in the city to check work permits that have been granted to foreigners.

Inspectors will examine the legality of the permits and whether they are still valid or expired, said Nguyen Van Hiep, the department’s chief inspector.

The department has issued 120 work permits to Chinese doctors since 2004, and now only 22 of them are still valid, Hiep said, adding that having a practitioner’s license is one of the requirements for granting a work permit.

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