Clinic inspected, Chinese ‘doctors’ flee, hide

As soon as an inspection team from the HCMC Health Department arrived at the Apollo General Clinic, at 228-228A Tran Hung Dao Street, District 1, at 6  am August 29, many Chinese “doctors” who were examining patients immediately left.

Some of them hid in the ceiling of a bathroom, some fled through a back door, and others hid in a locked room.

It took the inspectors more than an hour to check every corner of the clinic to look for the hiding workers and tell them to come out.

Inspectors finally found ten health workers and temporarily seized the passports of eight of them. The two others failed to show their passports.

Initial investigations showed that at least two of the ten Chinese had worked as ‘doctors’ at the clinic and directly examined and treated patients.

Inspectors found a large volume of medicine with Chinese characters inscribed on the packaging. As the clinic failed to show any documents related to the origin of the medicine, inspectors sealed all of it, pending investigation.

Repeat offender

Dr Bui Minh Trang, chief inspector of the HCMC Health Department, said the clinic, which was licensed by the department, has not registered any foreigners as employees.

Therefore, it was unlawful for the clinic to include Chinese health workers in the clinic’s operation. The inspection also showed that the clinic has operated beyond its license to provide treatment for sterility or sexual health problems to patients, Trang said.

The city Immigration Department will request that all of the Chinese workers under question present their work permits. Anyone who does not have a work permit will be expelled from Vietnam, Trang said.

The chief inspector also said that the clinic is a repeat offender of regulations on medical examination and treatment.

Three months ago, the department’s inspectorate levied administrative fines totaling VND44.5 million (US$2,100) for different violations, including  providing unlicensed health services, not publicizing  service and medicine prices, and failing to keep patients’ records fully and properly.

This time the inspectorate may ask the department to revoke the clinic’s license for its repeat violations, Trang said.

Many Chinese clinics break laws

A similar case occurred on May 8, when health inspectors and police in the city caught Hiep Hoa General Clinic in Tan Binh District, a private clinic, employing seven Chinese health workers, including “doctors” without a practitioner’s license – a practice that has existed in many clinics in the city for years.

Six of these Chinese health workers were later expelled and the city Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs fined the clinic VND110 million ($5,200). 

In July 2012 city health inspectors checked seven Chinese clinics and found that at three of these facilities 11 Chinese nationals, called “doctors” by their clinics, had not been licensed to practice.

These clinics were fined VND167 million in total, and they had their license revoked by the city Health Department.

Also in July 2012, the Department revoked the business licenses of five other Chinese clinics for violations of examination and treatment regulations, such as offering and advertising unlicensed services, employing doctors without practitioners’ licenses, and selling unapproved medicine.