The Hanoi Department of Health on July 16 closed the Maria Clinic so police could investigate the death of a patient who received treatment there.

Department chief inspector Nguyen Viet Cuong said that they would wait for the results of the investigation before making a decision on the future of the clinic. The department will give its full co-operation to the investigation.” 

Maria clinic

Doctors disappear following fatality

Nguyen Thi Thu Phong, 34, of Hanoi’s Ha Dong District in Hanoi, arrived at the Maria Clinic, at 65 Thai Thinh, Dong Da District, at about 6:50 pm on July 14 for a check up after feeling unwell following a day at work. 

Doctors at the clinic diagnosed Phong with cervicitis in cervical ectropion, vaginitis, and pelvic inflammatory disease. They then performed a blood test, an electrocardiogram test and transfused five bottles of fluid into her body, along with several other procedures.

A couple of hours later, after paying a total of VND8.6 million (USD416) to the clinic, Phong felt fatigued and called home, but when her relatives arrived at the clinic, they couldn’t find any doctors, and Phong had died of unknown causes.

The victim’s relatives reported the case to district police.

Arriving at the scene, police saw a woman near Mrs. Phong’s body, but when asked, she claimed it was a coincidence. However, she was detained by police but said she was unable to provide any further information because she worked in the clinic’s PR department.

After her arrest, she was seen to be sending text messages, so police confiscated her phone. Following closer inspection, police discovered a message that read: “Find an authorised person to take the corpse away”. The phone has been taken as evidence.

According to Tuoi Tre Newspaper, Colonel Bui Quang Dai, chief of the district police, told media that when police officers visited houses rented by two Chinese doctors who had treated Phong, they found that the houses had been locked.

The police immediately said that the doctors should be stopped from leaving Vietnam, Dai said.

Mr. Nguyen Van Nhat, Phong’s father-in-law, said: “On the afternoon of July 15, I was shocked to see my signature on the death certificate because I hadn’t signed it. In fact I had never touched the document before and someone must have forged my signature.”

Bach Mai Hospital, police and the military forensic agency will be performing an autopsy.

Violation repetition

The clinic was registered in the name of a Vietnamese person, but employs Chinese doctors have been fined before for practicing without a practitioner’s license, said chief inspector Cuong.

On June 26, 2012, Hanoi health inspectors ordered the clinic to repay a woman, D.T.K.Q., nearly VND24 million (USD1,150) that it had overcharged her. On June 27, the clinic was fined VND11.5 million (USD547.6) for multiple violations, including collecting money for technical services without listing prices and inaccurate advertisements.

Q, who lives in the capital’s Dong Da District, reportedly visited the clinic in April to have her contraceptive ring examined. After a series of ultrasounds and tests of vaginal fluid, urine, and blood, Dr. Lei Hong diagnosed Q. with genital warts – a sexually transmitted disease - and warned it would develop into cancer without treatment.

Q later went to a public hospital for re-examination, where doctors asserted that she had no gynaecological diseases, prompting her to file a complaint with the Health Department.

Earlier, Nguyen T.M.H, 23, from Hai Duong Province, arrived in the clinic and was diagnosed with genital warts and infertility. H. was charged VND150 million (USD7,142) and risked an end to her marriage with the news, Tuoi Tre said.

However, when she visited the Medicine and Pharmacy University Hospital for re-examination, doctors there confirmed that her health was normal, and she had neither contracted genital warts or suffered from infertility.

Currently, Hanoi has 13 foreign-invested clinics with 17 Chinese doctors. They are inspected at least twice every year. Those that fail to meet standards are fined and will be subject to more rigorous inspections.