To crack down on the illegal medical practice and close “black clinics” in Beijing, we should first have a clear idea of what “legal medical practice” is, so that the audience could understand what “illegal medical practice” is through comparison. First, legitimate medical institutions should obtain the Practice Permission of Medical Institutions issued by the health administrative departments. Second, the medical institutions should make diagnosis and treatment in accordance with the clinical subjects registered on the permission. Third, the medical staff should obtain the practicing qualifications. In other words, the medical staff with the practicing certificates should make diagnosis and treatment on the patients in the legal medical institutions in the registered practice locations and ranges. This is the “legal medical practice”.
Well then, what is illegal medical practice? Although there are diverse forms of “illegal medical practice”, the main forms are unlawful practice of medical institutions and unqualified persons. The most common is diagnosing and treating privately without the Practice Permission of Medical Institutions, which are usually called “black clinics”. Secondly, illegal medical practices also include carrying out the diagnosis and treatment out of the range of the registered clinical subjects in the qualified and legal medical institutions, or renting the section offices or rooms to anyone who does not belong to the medical institutions or any other organization to carry out the medical activities. Thirdly, the medical personnel without the medical qualifications serving in medical institutions are called unqualified medical practice or medical quack.
As early as in 2005, the Ministry of Health with other 6 ministries promulgated the Special Action to Combat the Illegal Practice of Medicine, and demanded a nationwide cracking down action in response to the common problems of illegal practice mentioned above. Besides combating and banning the “black clinics” and the “medical quack”, the Special Action also included some other aspects as cracking down on illegal treatment of venereal diseases, illegally identifying and the sex of fetus by the type-B ultrasonic and operating surgical termination of pregnancy, illegal medical beauty services, and illegal medical advertisements and so on.
In 2008, the Beijing Health Bureau carried out the enforcement actions associated with another 10 departments including Beijing Public Security Bureau, Beijing Supervision Bureau, Beijing Drug Administration and Urban Management Bureau, and successfully organized 5 large-scale special operations on the illegal medical practices across the city. By the end of 2008, 3,341 unqualified medical practices had been banned during the campaign, with 280,000 Yuan fine, 7,887 pieces of medical devices, 3,701 boxes of medicine and about 50,000 Yuan illegal income confiscated, in which 104 cases had been transferred to judicial organs and 3 cases of them had been subject to criminal responsibility. Besides, the Health Supervisory Departments carried out daily supervision and inspection on medical institutions 9,269 times and investigated and dealt with 676 cases, with 1.11 million Yuan fine, more than 5.18 million Yuan illegal income confiscated, and 8 Practice
Permissions of Medical Institution suspended.
The combating against the illegal medical practice is a tough and long-term task. As illegal medical practices mainly concentrated in the hidden integration of urban district and rural district and the rural areas, it causes great difficulties in combating and investigating. Therefore, we hope that the public should be more vigilant, do not see a “medical quack” in the "black clinics" for saving money or saving troubles, and do not trust any false propaganda; otherwise it would endanger one’s own health. Meanwhile, we hope that the public could actively provide us with clues, so that we could combat against illegal medical practice together. Please call 12320, our number for complaints, when you notice any evidence of illegal medical practices.