Another clinic repeats "faking illness to extort money"

On October 31, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health announced that the unit discovered that the General Clinic of the August General Clinic Company Limited (74 Cach Mang Thang Tam, Vo Thi Sau Ward, District 3), with Mr. N.H.P as General Director, was repeating the "fake illness, extort money" practice.

The Health Department Inspectorate will transfer the case to the police agency to investigate and consider prosecuting violations of the law that directly affect the health and rights of the people.

Previously, on October 30, the Health Department Inspectorate received a call for help from the family of a pregnant woman who was kept by this private clinic to "fake illnesses and extort money".

The pregnant woman's mother said that on October 29, when she took her child to the clinic for an abortion, she was advised to pay 10 million VND. The doctor examined her and said that the fetus was 18 weeks old. Then, a female doctor came in to examine her and gave her medicine to "abort the fetus" (name of medicine unknown).

After that, the clinic doctor gave the pregnant woman 2 pills to take and scheduled a follow-up appointment on October 30. On October 30, when she arrived at the clinic, a female doctor examined the patient, prescribed an injection and delivered the fetus. During the examination, the doctor informed her that because the fetus was large, this was a difficult case and needed to do a painless package for 65 million VND.

Because they did not have enough money to pay, the patient's family called the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health for help. The Department of Health Inspectorate coordinated with the 115 Emergency Center to assist and transfer the patient to Tu Du Hospital for further treatment.

At the time of the inspection, the team recorded that the patient's treatment team included doctor N.T.V and nurse L.T.T.N. Doctor N.T.V admitted to examining and treating the patient and prescribing pregnancy-preserving medicine, vitamin supplements and iron. As for the issue of counseling and prescribing medication to terminate the pregnancy, this person was unclear.

Nurse L.T.T.N confirmed that she had consulted a painless abortion service package for a patient for 65 million VND, 10 million VND higher than the initial consultation price, and arbitrarily prescribed the abortion drug Misoprostol 200mcg 2 tablets, to be taken orally without a doctor's prescription.

The multidisciplinary clinic of August Multidisciplinary Clinic Company Limited was granted a license to operate medical examination and treatment by the Department of Health in August 2022, with Dr. L.N.B in charge of technical expertise.

The clinic approved the list of techniques for Doctor Y.H.D - in charge of the Obstetrics Department, including the technique of medical abortion for pregnancies up to 7 weeks. However, before that, Doctor Y.H.D was administratively sanctioned by the Inspectorate of the Department of Health, including the additional penalty of revoking the right to use the Certificate of Practice of Medical Examination and Treatment for a period of 2 months from September 25, 2024.

The Health Department Inspectorate requested the facility to temporarily suspend all medical examination and treatment activities immediately upon inspection until the incident is resolved.