All of the seven licensed Chinese clinics in Ho Chi Minh City have been found violating regulations on medical practice, the city Health Department reported.

The medicine without origin prescribed to a patient by Ky Tinh Clinic, 43 Kinh Duong Vuong, District 6, HCMC

According to the department’s note, the city currently has seven licensed Chinese clinics which operate many other medical facilities across the city.

The violators include the branch of the Chinese Medical Clinic in Ward 2, Phu Nhuan District; the Chinese Medical Clinic in Ward 14, District 10; the Trung Nam Traditional Medical Clinic in Ward 16, District 11; the Van Lang Medical Trading and Production Co Ltd in Ward 26, Binh Thanh District; the Anh Sang Traditional Medicine Co Ltd in Ward 8, Tan Binh District; the Hue Ha Traditional Medicine Co Ltd in Ward 12, District 5; and an individual health entity in Ward 12, District 6.

Following a recent investigation, the department found these entities advertising without registration or with unapproved contents, not using Vietnamese in their prescriptions, not having registry books for their patients, and using signboards not in accordance with relevant regulations.

The violators have been fined a total of VND324.3 million (USD15,500) and have been ordered to correct their wrongdoings, the department said.

Earlier, many readers reported to Tuoi Tre that many Ho Chi Minh City-based Chinese clinics launched boastful advertisements, gave deceitful prescriptions to patients, and provided medicines at exorbitant prices.

Tuoi Tre later conducted its own inquiries and found the situation was the same as reported by the readers.

Phuong Nam Oriental Medicine Clinic at 450 Ba Thang Hai Street, District 10, HCMC (Photo: Tuoi Tre)

Many patients said they ended up at Chinese clinics after seeing or reading their advertisements on the internet and in the newspapers.

Some of them were impressed with the printed materials, often made to look like health magazines and freely distributed by the clinics to patients, in which they boasted they could treat nearly all diseases.

Such extravagant advertisements are often seen on many national TV channels, including SCTV7, SCTV9, VTV9, and BPTV1.

However, many patients said after spending tens of millions of dong on treatment at these places, their health did not improve but in some cases they even suffered from complications.