Known as "old Chinese medicine", acupuncture points are indistinguishable
The reporter investigates the pseudo-Chinese medicine in the hidden residential building
Investigate motives
Recently, Zhang Daniang in Cangzhou, Hebei Province, reported to this reporter that she encountered a pseudo-Chinese medicine. Zhang Daniang said that some time ago, she was not feeling well, and when she was chatting in the community, she heard that there was an "old Chinese medicine doctor" nearby, who was good at conditioning, which was much more effective than going to the hospital.
Zhang Daniang found an "old Chinese medicine doctor" in a residential building to see a doctor, and the "old Chinese medicine doctor" prescribed 4 bottles of medicine (300 yuan per bottle), saying that it was taken after meals, and the medicine was eliminated after 2 courses of treatment. As a result, Zhang Daniang's condition not only did not improve after taking the medicine, but also developed symptoms such as nausea and dizziness.
Later, when she went to the hospital for examination, the doctor said that she had a disorder in her immune system, and she got better soon after prescribing medicine. "The 'old Chinese doctor' didn't know what medicine was prescribed to me, and there was no mark on the medicine bottle. When I went to settle the account with him, the building was empty. Zhang Da Niang said angrily, often heard that there is an "old Chinese medicine" around me, which is very mysterious, but how many of them are pseudo Chinese medicine?
To this end, the reporter conducted an investigative interview.
□ reporter Han Dandong
□ Intern Wang Yitian
A conversation made Mr. Zhou in Beijing suddenly realize that he may have encountered a pseudo-Chinese medicine.
Mr. Zhou's family lives in the Old Palace of Daxing District, Beijing, and he has an old problem of lumbar disc herniation, which will recur after a while. In July and August last year, he heard that there was an "old Chinese medicine doctor" in the nearby "×× Home" community, who taught famous masters and acupuncture techniques.
So he rushed to the community and found the "divine doctor" in a villa. "Divine doctors" claim to be the heirs of "ancient hanging moxibustion techniques", and many pennants sent by "patients" are hung in the acupuncture hall. However, after receiving acupuncture for a period of time, Mr. Zhou's condition not only did not ease, but the pain became more intense.
"What acupuncture points are you pricking, and what is the function of acupuncture these acupuncture points?" In the face of Mr. Zhou's sudden question, the "old Chinese medicine doctor" could not answer for a long time.
In February this year, this "old Chinese medicine doctor" did not say goodbye.
Traditional Chinese medicine, as the traditional medicine of the Chinese nation, is a medical theoretical system gradually formed and developed in long-term medical practice, which is deeply trusted by the general public and has been included in its medical outline with global influence by the World Health Organization.
And some criminals also see "business opportunities" because of this. A reporter from "Rule of Law Daily" recently investigated and learned that in the people, many people who have not obtained professional qualifications as doctors, relying on gimmicks such as "ancestral prescriptions" and "traditional Chinese medicine practitioners", carry out medical activities without authorization, claiming to be able to cure any intractable diseases, and there are great medical safety risks.
Experts interviewed pointed out that unlicensed medical practitioners who use improper means to obtain illegal benefits and ignore the lives and health of others will not only bear civil compensation, but also seriously or suspected of criminal offenses of illegal medical practice, and suggest the establishment of a joint credit punishment mechanism, increase the intensity of punishment, and encourage the public to actively report the chaos of pseudo-Chinese medicine diagnosis and treatment.
Seeing a doctor meets pseudo-Chinese medicine
It cost a lot of disease and did not cure it
The reporter recently went to the "×× Home" community of the Old Palace, and many residents told the reporter about the acupuncture hall in the above-mentioned villa. The acupuncture hall was moved in July last year, and the "old Chinese medicine doctor" called himself Li, known as the "ancient suspension and moxibustion technique", he was responsible for acupuncture, and an assistant was responsible for Tuina and massage.
The acupuncture hall displays the experience and achievements of "old Chinese medicine", the remaining rooms are guest rooms and office meeting places, and the acupuncture area is located on the basement floor.
He said that he inherited his mother's ancient hanging acupuncture technique, and then formed a set of effective acupuncture techniques after 30 years of practice. One acupuncture session costs 100 yuan for 600 minutes. In addition, he also provides patients with a series of complementary Chinese herbal medicines at a high price. One resident told reporters.
Some residents recalled that after the "old Chinese medicine doctor" moved in, the nearby saying that the "old Chinese medicine doctor" was very divine and very good quickly spread, suspecting that he hired a team to make false propaganda. But at that time, the effect was immediate, and many people came to seek medical treatment.
Over time, many people found that they paid a lot of money, but the acupuncture of the "old Chinese medicine" did not work, and their symptoms were basically not alleviated, and the drugs prescribed by the "old Chinese medicine" became more and more expensive.
In this regard, the explanation of this "old Chinese doctor" is that each person's physique is different, and the effect of acupuncture and medication is also different. For the question of "which acupuncture points are pricked" by patient Mr. Zhou, the final reply of the "old Chinese medicine practitioner" was: I learned it from my mother, I only know where to pierce, and the specific professional terms cannot be said.
Later, some patients pointed out that the "old Chinese medicine practitioners" provided acupuncture services, and doctors who had obtained the "Physician Practice Certificate" of the TCM specialty and the "TCM (Specialty) Physician Practice Qualification Certificate" with acupuncture expertise were required to carry out TCM acupuncture activities in relevant medical institutions. This "old Chinese medicine doctor" could not obtain a qualification certificate, which was an illegal medical practice.
According to the recollections of many patients, later the "old Chinese doctor" has always hung a sentence on his lips: "I have been practicing medicine for more than 30 years, can I still harm you?" ”
"The drugs sold by 'old Chinese medicine' are all self-medicinal products with simple packaging, only the name label is affixed to the bag, and the rest of the information is gone. Now that I think about it, I feel afraid of taking this medicine. A resident surnamed Li who has been to an acupuncture hall said.
In the continuous questioning of patients, in February this year, this "old Chinese medicine doctor" hurriedly quit the lease and disappeared.
The "old Chinese doctor" encountered by Zhang Daniang in Cangzhou, Hebei Province, is actually in a similar situation. She also listened to others in the community introduce such a "divine doctor" nearby, because she was not feeling well recently, she went to the residential building to find an "old Chinese doctor" to see a doctor, and the other party prescribed medicine after hearing the condition, and there was no mark on the medicine bottle.
Although the medicine had no effect and she was nauseated and dizzy, at first Zhang Da Niang was convinced of the "old Chinese medicine". It wasn't until the family insisted on seeing a doctor in the hospital that his condition quickly improved. "These pseudo-Chinese medicine practitioners hidden in residential buildings, claiming to be 'old Chinese medicines', do not have a practice certificate, and the drugs prescribed are all 'three no' products, which delay the treatment of diseases and endanger their health." Zhang Da Niang sighed, "You still have to go to a regular hospital to see a doctor." ”
Under the banner of medicine and food homology
Raise prices sharply to take advantage of the opportunity to accumulate wealth
An industry insider surnamed Zhao told reporters that many "old Chinese medicine practitioners" have packaged themselves as famous doctors with teachers and secret recipes to attract patients to see doctors and take advantage of the opportunity to accumulate wealth. Many of these pseudo-Chinese medicine drugs prescribed for patients are found by manufacturers who make food, ask manufacturers to produce food products, and then declare to patients that "medicine and food are the same source", and sell them as drugs, and the price is still very high.
"Pseudo-Chinese medicine practitioners generally look at chronic diseases, and their income is the cost of medical treatment and medicine, and they often tell patients when they see a doctor that this disease needs long-term treatment. When the patient questions that the condition has not improved, the pseudo-Chinese medicine practitioner will bring out the reason that the individual constitution is different, and question the patient for not taking the medicine according to his own instructions. This industry insider introduced the routine of "old Chinese medicine".
A Chinese medicine enthusiast revealed that when some "old Chinese medicine" see a doctor, they will not prescribe medicine without an examination report and laboratory test sheet from a regular hospital, and the prescription is also very direct.
Yue Qiang, senior partner of Beijing Hairun Tianrui Law Firm, introduced that "food brand" products mainly refer to ordinary foods that do not have medicinal effects; "Medicinal and food homologous" products refer to foods that are traditionally both food and Chinese medicinal materials and are listed in the "medicinal and food-homologous" food catalog; Drugs refer to substances used to prevent, treat and diagnose human diseases, purposefully regulate human physiological functions and stipulate indications or functional indications, usage and dosage. There are huge differences in regulatory standards and other aspects, and according to the Food Safety Law and the Advertising Law, "food size" products cannot directly promote a certain effect.
"Pseudo-Chinese medicine practitioners deliberately inform patients of false information, conceal the true situation of the drugs sold, and secretly replace the concept of 'food number' products as drugs and 'medicine and food from the same source', so that patients fall into wrong perceptions and make untrue intentions based on this, which constitutes fraud." Yue Qiang said that in the long run, patients are caught in one cycle after another, paying money to buy medicine again and again, spending a lot of money on diseases but not cured, and by the time they find that something is wrong, pseudo-Chinese medicine practitioners have already run away with money and do not know the end.
A practitioner in the health care products industry told reporters that a bottle of medicinal wine that claims to be able to treat lung nodules, priced at 1,<> yuan a bottle, has been labeled as "medicine and food from the same source" by many "old Chinese medicines", and sold as medicine, in fact, the cost of a bottle of wine is only tens of yuan.
The Measures for the Investigation and Handling of Food Safety Fraud (Draft for Comments) issued by the former State Food and Drug Administration in 2017 mentioned that ordinary foods that explicitly or imply efficacy or special medical uses, or use medical terms such as "treatable" and "curable", and food promotion information involving disease prevention and therapeutic functions is food publicity fraud.
What's more, they sell counterfeit drugs under the guise of Chinese medicine and commit fraud.
In December 2022, the Supreme People's Procuratorate released typical cases of drug safety public interest litigation, including an "administrative public interest litigation case in which the procuratorate of Haiyan County, Zhejiang Province urged rectification of the sale of fake traditional Chinese medicines".
In July 2021, Qian Moumou registered and established the "Qian's Health Center", and by hanging pennants and distributing business cards, he declared that he was the vice president of a medical school in Beijing, a rehabilitation physiotherapist of traditional Chinese medicine, and a qigong practitioner, who could treat geriatric diseases such as osteogenesis and rheumatoid arthritis, solicited the elderly to enter the store for conditioning, and used terms such as "activating stem cells" and "regenerating tissue cells" to trick the elderly into buying "joint regeneration capsules" (the drug was identified as counterfeit) treatment.
The Haiyan County People's Procuratorate held that Qian Moumou used the health center to sell fake Chinese medicines to the elderly under the banner of "traditional Chinese medicine", violating the provisions of the first paragraph of Article 98 of the Drug Administration Law that "prohibiting the production, sale and use of counterfeit drugs and inferior drugs", endangering the lives and health of the people and harming the public interest, and suggested that Qian Moumou's illegal act of selling counterfeit drugs be investigated and dealt with.
Practicing medicine without a license is very harmful
Once exposed, the missing traces are removed
The reporter noticed that many patients seek folk "old Chinese medicine" to treat their diseases, which is nothing more than the introduction of friends, acquaintances, neighbors, etc., most of the reasons are "I heard that there are special gods, there are ancestral secret recipes, and medicine can eliminate diseases."
Ms. Liu from Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, was punished by pseudo-Chinese medicine for listening to rumors.
Ms. Liu spent several months trying to conceive after marriage, without success. When the neighbor found out, he introduced her to an "old Chinese doctor" and called the other party "a famous doctor who cures all diseases, in addition to treating diseases, he can also condition the body."
Ms. Liu decided to give it a try. She found this "old Chinese medicine doctor", and after the other party simply took her pulse, she prescribed medicines, including the hormonal western drug "Tonic Jia Le (estradiol valerate tablets)". In the meantime, no matter how Ms. Liu asked, the other party did not respond in detail, which seemed inscrutable. Subsequently, the "old Chinese medicine doctor" asked Ms. Liu to take the prescription to prescribe medicine, and 3 doses of medicine were more than 700 yuan.
"At that time, I didn't know how serious my condition was, but I just followed the requirements of the 'old Chinese doctor' and took the 3 Chinese medicines and tonic jiale prescribed by him." Ms. Liu did not expect that the more she ate, the weaker her body became, the menstrual cycle became longer and longer, and finally the "old Chinese medicine doctor" was worried about the problem, so she went to a regular hospital for examination.
The examination results showed that Ms. Liu had premature ovarian failure, which was later cured under the treatment of a professional doctor. Afterwards, Ms. Liu went to find the "old Chinese doctor" theory, but the other party had disappeared.
"I heard from neighbors that he is self-taught, and he relies on acquaintances to see doctors, and he does not have relevant Chinese medicine qualifications." Ms. Liu told reporters.
The reporter learned that for Chinese medicine, relevant Chinese medicine practice certificates are essential, including traditional Chinese medicine practitioner inheritance certificate, traditional medicine medical skills confirmed expertise certificate and traditional Chinese medicine (specialty) physician qualification certificate. After obtaining the first two certificates, it is necessary to continue to obtain the qualification certificates of assistant physician and medical practitioner, and then have the right to practice medicine; As long as the TCM (specialty) physician qualification certificate is obtained, he or she can have the right to practice medicine and can engage in medical activities in medical institutions or practice as an individual.
"The newly revised Physician Law stipulates that regardless of the teacher's inheritance or those who do have expertise, after assessment and recommendation, they can obtain the qualification certificate of traditional Chinese medicine practitioner. The state has given the opportunity to obtain the qualifications of traditional Chinese medicine practitioners to those who do have expertise, ancestral inheritance, and teacher inheritance, and still practice medicine without a license, it shall be deemed to be illegal to practice medicine. Zheng Xueqian, vice president of the China Health Law Society and director of Beijing Huawei Law Firm, said.
A number of experts interviewed pointed out that the above-mentioned folk "old Chinese medicine practitioners" have already involved illegal medical practice.
"Such unlicensed medical practitioners who use improper means to obtain illegal benefits and ignore the lives and health of others will not only be subject to administrative punishment and bear civil compensation, but may also be held criminally liable." Zheng Xueqian said.
Yue Qiang added that if the illegal practice of medicine meets the "serious circumstances" standard, it will cause mild disability of the patient, organ and tissue damage and general dysfunction; Causing the spread or epidemic of Class A infectious diseases or there is a risk of transmission or epidemic; The use of counterfeit drugs, inferior drugs, or sanitary materials or medical devices that do not meet the standards prescribed by the state is sufficient to seriously endanger human health; After the illegal practice of medicine has been punished twice by the administrative department of health, those who illegally practice medicine again, etc., are suspected of the criminal crime of illegal medical practice.
Establish credit punishment mechanisms
Increase the severity of punishments for violations
"Unlicensed practice is unsafe from the perspective of medical safety, especially untrained and taught 'Chinese medicine', which only relies on specific prescriptions to treat diseases, similar to treatment that only targets symptoms, which is not in line with modern medical concepts." Deng Liqiang, deputy director of Beijing Hua Wei Law Firm, said that strengthening supervision is therefore imminent.
Zheng Xueqian also proposed that the relevant departments should intensify the crackdown on illegal medical practice, and at the same time refer to foreign countries to establish a joint credit punishment mechanism, link unlicensed medical practitioners with the credit system to form a deterrent, and encourage the public to report the chaos of pseudo-Chinese medicine diagnosis and treatment.
"The majority of patients should also keep their eyes open, check whether traditional Chinese medicine practitioners and clinics have relevant qualifications before treatment, and go to regular hospitals and clinics with complete qualifications to see a doctor." Zheng Xueqian said.
Yue Qiang suggested that a regulatory system composed of the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, the drug regulatory department, the market regulatory department and other relevant departments should be established and improved, the responsibilities of each competent department should be clarified, regulatory gaps and shirking of responsibility should be avoided, and the chaos of pseudo-Chinese medicine diagnosis and treatment should be rectified in a timely manner, and punishment should be increased; Attach importance to the development of industry associations, strengthen industry self-discipline, establish industry "blacklists", publicize industry irregularities, and provide risk warnings to consumers; The news media should also give play to the role of public opinion supervision and publicity of popular science, promptly expose and disclose the chaos of pseudo-Chinese medicine diagnosis and treatment, and carry out popular science publicity to the masses to enhance the public's level of scientific understanding and awareness of rights protection. (Rule of Law Daily)