Clipping Board » Medical Affairs and Administration ─ Medical system, pharmaceuticals, and medical community-related reports
United Daily News / Reporter Chen Huihui / Taipei Report】 2009.12.30 05:52 am
A major scandal has erupted in the medical community, where a group colluded with doctors to switch medical specimens and perform mastectomies and rectal surgeries on healthy individuals to fraudulently claim insurance payouts, potentially exceeding one billion NT dollars. Over ten hospitals were involved. In a rare move before court rulings, the Department of Health (DOH) announced the revocation of medical licenses for three implicated physicians.
Wu Delang, chairman of the Taiwan Hospital Association, stated that the medical profession values discipline and ethics, and should severely punish such "black sheep" and scoundrels within their ranks.
This marks the first time the DOH has imposed its harshest penalty of revoking medical licenses. The DOH’s Medical Affairs Department admitted that the most severe punishment in the past was suspension of practice, and no medical licenses had been revoked in the past four years. Once a license is revoked, the individual is permanently barred from practicing medicine.
According to the Criminal Investigation Bureau’s Fourth Division, the Fu Jiansen group, since 2003, conspired with doctors and fake patients to switch specimens, falsely diagnosing healthy individuals with cancer and performing unnecessary rectal, breast, uterine, and ovarian removal surgeries. Doctors Yang Chaoran from Keelung Hospital, Lai Dexing from Yiren General Hospital in Taoyuan County, and Wu Guojing from St. Joseph’s Hospital in Yunlin County have confessed to the crimes, with conclusive evidence. The DOH decided to revoke their licenses.
DOH Minister Yang Zhiliang, along with Taiwan Medical Association Chairman Li Mingbin and Hospital Association Chairman Wu Delang, disclosed that besides the three doctors, seven patients were involved—four underwent partial mastectomies, breast biopsies, or chemotherapy, two received chemotherapy, and ringleader Fu Jiansen himself underwent rectal surgery and chemotherapy.
The case is expected to expand further, with four more doctors under investigation. The implicated hospitals include both public and private institutions, ranging from medical centers to regional hospitals, making this the largest-scale scandal of its kind. Yang Zhiliang expressed "deep sorrow" and, despite ongoing investigations and pending court rulings, emphasized the need to uphold the medical profession’s dignity by revoking the accused doctors’ licenses.
Shi Chongliang, director of the DOH’s Medical Affairs Department, noted that past physician misconduct typically involved falsifying diagnostic reports, such as Barthel Index assessments, but never intentional harm to patients. In this case, doctors switched specimens and even mixed formaldehyde-preserved cancer patients’ samples with healthy ones to justify surgeries and chemotherapy.
Source: http://udn. com/ NEWS/ NATIONAL/ NATS1/ 5337075. shtml
Fake Cancer, Real Surgery: 3 Doctors Banned for Life
A major scandal has erupted in the medical community, where a group colluded with doctors to switch medical specimens and perform mastectomies and rectal surgeries on healthy individuals to fraudulently claim insurance payouts, potentially exceeding one billion NT dollars. Over ten hospitals were involved. In a rare move before court rulings, the Department of Health (DOH) announced the revocation of medical licenses for three implicated physicians.
Wu Delang, chairman of the Taiwan Hospital Association, stated that the medical profession values discipline and ethics, and should severely punish such "black sheep" and scoundrels within their ranks.
This marks the first time the DOH has imposed its harshest penalty of revoking medical licenses. The DOH’s Medical Affairs Department admitted that the most severe punishment in the past was suspension of practice, and no medical licenses had been revoked in the past four years. Once a license is revoked, the individual is permanently barred from practicing medicine.
According to the Criminal Investigation Bureau’s Fourth Division, the Fu Jiansen group, since 2003, conspired with doctors and fake patients to switch specimens, falsely diagnosing healthy individuals with cancer and performing unnecessary rectal, breast, uterine, and ovarian removal surgeries. Doctors Yang Chaoran from Keelung Hospital, Lai Dexing from Yiren General Hospital in Taoyuan County, and Wu Guojing from St. Joseph’s Hospital in Yunlin County have confessed to the crimes, with conclusive evidence. The DOH decided to revoke their licenses.
DOH Minister Yang Zhiliang, along with Taiwan Medical Association Chairman Li Mingbin and Hospital Association Chairman Wu Delang, disclosed that besides the three doctors, seven patients were involved—four underwent partial mastectomies, breast biopsies, or chemotherapy, two received chemotherapy, and ringleader Fu Jiansen himself underwent rectal surgery and chemotherapy.
The case is expected to expand further, with four more doctors under investigation. The implicated hospitals include both public and private institutions, ranging from medical centers to regional hospitals, making this the largest-scale scandal of its kind. Yang Zhiliang expressed "deep sorrow" and, despite ongoing investigations and pending court rulings, emphasized the need to uphold the medical profession’s dignity by revoking the accused doctors’ licenses.
Shi Chongliang, director of the DOH’s Medical Affairs Department, noted that past physician misconduct typically involved falsifying diagnostic reports, such as Barthel Index assessments, but never intentional harm to patients. In this case, doctors switched specimens and even mixed formaldehyde-preserved cancer patients’ samples with healthy ones to justify surgeries and chemotherapy.
Source: http://udn. com/ NEWS/ NATIONAL/ NATS1/ 5337075. shtml
2009/12/30 09:28
2009/12/30 09:29
2009/12/30 09:30