CIRCULAR

GUIDING THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE ORDINANCE ON PRIVATE MEDICAL AND PHARMACEUTICAL PRACTICE AND DECREE No. 6-CP ON THE 29^th OF JANUARY 1994 OF THE GOVERNMENT CONCRETIZING A NUMBER OF ARTICLES OF THIS ORDINANCE IN THE AREA OF PRIVATE MEDICAL PRACTICE

Pursuant to the Ordinance on Private Medical and Pharmaceutical Practice and Decree No-6-CP on the 29th of January 1994 of the Government concretizing a number of articles of this Ordinance, the Ministry of Public Health provides the following details to guide the private medical practice:

I. GENERAL PROVISIONS

1. Private medical practice comprises:

- Private clinics;

- Polyclinical or specialized consulting rooms;

- Dentistry and denture rooms;

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- X-ray examination and X-ray photography rooms;

- Aesthetic surgery rooms;

- Establishment for treatment and rehabilitation services;

- Private maternity homes;

- Establishments for birth control services: placing of intra-uterine (contraceptive) device (IUCD), abortion by aspiration, non-scalpel male sterilization and consultancy on family planning.

- Establishments for medical injection, puncture and bandaging services.

2. Employees and public servants in the State apparatus, and active officers in the People's Armed Forces are not allowed to take part in the setting up or management of private clinics but they are allowed to carry out private medical practice outside office hours in other forms of organization as stipulated in Section I.1, if they obtain permission from the heads of their offices.

3. The right to ownership of the material bases, the right to inheritance of properties and the other legitimate rights and lawful interests of the owners of private medical establishments are protected by the State.

4. The State encourages and creates favorable conditions for the registration to conduct private medical practice in the highlands, mountainous regions, offshore islands and other remote areas.

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II. CRITERIA AND CONDITIONS FOR EACH FORM OF PRIVATE MEDICAL PRACTICE AND THE AREAS OF SPECIALITY DEFINED FOR THE PRACTICE

1. Criteria and speciality area for private medical practice of an applicant for private medical practice:

Aside from the criteria set out for an applicant for private medical practice stipulated at Articles 6 and 11 of the Ordinance on Private Medical and Pharmaceutical Practice and a health certificate, a person who applies for private medical practice shall have to meet concrete criteria for the speciality in each form of private medical practice as follows:

a/ The director of a private clinic must be a general practitioner or a specialist doctor with at least five years of continuous practice at a consulting or treatment establishment of the State. He/she must be checked by the professional council of the Medical Service and certified as having the necessary professional qualifications.

b/ The applicant for opening general consulting room or a specialized consulting room must be general practitioner or a specialist doctor with at least five years of continuous practice at State-owned or private consulting or treatment institutions.

c/ The applicant for opening a dentist room or a denture room must be a dentistry doctor with a least five years of continuous practice at a dentist's consulting or treatment in situation. With regard to those denture workers who had practiced their job before 1980 and if this practice is certified by the local administration, they are allowed to provide services on artificial teeth and jaws as prescribed in the operating permit.

d/ The applicant for opening a test laboratory, a functional probe laboratory, an X-ray photography or examination room must be a specialist doctor or pharmacist with at least five years of continuous practice at a consulting or treatment of his/her specialty.

e/ The applicant for opening an aesthetic surgery establishment must be a doctor specializing in plastic surgery with at least five years of continuous practice at establishments of this speciality.

f/ The applicant for opening a convalescence home or a functional rehabilitation center must be a doctor with at least five years of continuous practice in functional rehabilitation at consulting or treatment establishments or convalescence homes.

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h/ The applicant for opening an establishment for birth control services must be an obstetric doctor with at least five years of continuous practice at consulting and treatment establishments of this specialty.

i/ The applicant for providing medical injections or bandaging on the doctor's prescriptions must be a nurse with at least two years of continuous practice at consulting and treatment establishments.

j/ A retired general practitioner of intermediate level or a retired specialized physician of intermediate level in the highlands (as stipulated in Decision No. 21-UB/QD on the 26th of January 1993 of the Minister-Chairman of the Committee for the Ethnic Minorities and the Mountainous Regions) with more than five years of continuous practice at consulting and treatment establishments may apply to open a general or specialized consulting room if he meets the criteria and other conditions stipulated in this Circular.

2. Conditions on material bases, equipment and techniques:

a/ For a private clinic:

It has to be patterned on the model of organization and meet the requirements on material basis, medical equipment and other conditions for the operation of the clinic as is the case with a polyclinic or a specialized clinic of the State.

b/ For other forms of private medical practice: the establishment must be airy, sufficiently lighted, meet the sanitation norms and must be provided with the following rooms:

- A waiting or reception rooms for patients.

- A consulting room.

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- A recovery and emergency room (if it is an establishment conducting surgical or manual operations).

- A delivery room (if it is a maternity home).

- A patient retaining room.

Each of the above-mentioned rooms must have a minimum space of eight square meters.

The clinic must have the necessary medical equipment in good conditions depending on the prescriptions for each type of organization.

In the case of an establishment for medical injection or bandaging services, there needs only six square meters of floor space with the necessary equipment and instruments as prescribed.

III. PROCEDURES AND COMPETENCE IN ISSUING LICENSES AND CERTIFICATES TO PRIVATE MEDICAL PRACTICE ESTABLISHMENTS.

A. PURSUANT TO ARTICLE 24 OF THE ORDINANCE ON PRIVATE MEDICAL AND PHARMACEUTICAL PRACTICE, THE MINISTRY OF PUBLIC HEALTH ALSO PROVIDES FOR FOLLOWING PROCEDURES:

1. For all forms of private medical practice, except private clinics:

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+ The application for medical practice in which the following must be specified:

- Name, date of birth and permanent address of the applicant;

- The content of the specialty the applicant wishes to practice;

- Measures for environmental protection;

- A copy of the diploma or certificate of professional qualifications certified by the State Notary Public.

+ A CV certified by the People's Committee of the commune, ward or township where the applicant wishes to carry out his medical practice.

+ A certificate of at least five years of practice at consulting or treatment establishments.

+ A health certificate.

+ A permit of the head of the office or unit allowing the applicant to work off-hours, it he is working at a medical or pharmaceutical establishment of the State.

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2. For a private clinic:

The same procedures and file as in Section III. 1 plus a program of initial activities (economic and technical feasibility studies) and operational statute of the clinic. The program of initial activities must specify: the capital corresponding with the number of beds and technical equipment in service of the patients, description of the organization and activities of the clinic, measures for environmental protection (water supply, drainage, waste disposal, medical radioactivity safety...)

B. COMPETENCE IN ISSUING CERTIFICATES OF CRITERIA AND CONDITIONS FOR PRIVATE MEDICAL PRACTICE.

1. The Ministry of Public Health shall issue the certificate of criteria and conditions for opening a private clinic.

V. PROVISIONS ON IMPLEMENTATION

1. The Ministry of Public Health and the health services in the provinces and cities directly under the Central Government shall set up their professional councils composed of head specialists of different specialities, representatives of the Vietnam General Medicine and Pharmacy Association and the medicine and pharmacy associations in the provinces and cities directly under the Central Government to consider and approve the applications for opening private medical establishments and examine their material conditions and medical equipment.

2. The Ministry of Public Health (the Treatment Department) and the health services in the provinces and cities directly under the Central Government have to appoint full-time specialized cadres to monitor and manage private medical practice. In Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and some other major cities, the health service may propose to the Municipal People's Committee to set up an appropriate specialized organization to monitor and manage the private medical establishments in its locality.

3. The health services in the provinces and cities must include, in their periodical reports to the Ministry of Public Health, a section on the management of private medical practice in their localities.

4. The health services in the provinces and cities directly under the Central Government must set up and strengthen their specialized system of inspection of medical examinations and treatment, and strengthen their inspectoral activities at the private medical establishments in order to detect and handle the violations as prescribed by the regulations on administrative sanctions in the medical service (issued along with Decree No.341-HDBT on the 22nd of September, 1992 of the Council of Ministers, now the Government).

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FOR THE MINISTER OF PUBLIC HEALTH
VICE MINISTER




Professor Le Ngoc Trong