Vietnam suspends doctor for taking bribes
HANOI - A Vietnamese hospital has suspended a doctor
for
six months after he extracted 600 dollars
from the family of a seriously ill cancer patient on the basis of
false
promises of quick treatment, an official daily reported
Tuesday.
Patient Pham Thi Mat, 50, is now terminally ill with uterine cancer
after the oncologist, named only as Dr P., failed to
deliver on his promises to move her up the waiting list, the Tuoi
Tre
newspaper said.
Managers at the Ho Chi Minh City Cancer Treatment Centre took the
disciplinary action Friday after receiving a
complaint from Mat's family.
Corruption is widespread in Vietnam's public services, where
salaries
have failed to keep pace with the private sector
since the launch of market reforms in the 1980s.
The official media regularly talks of doctors, policemen, teachers,
and
even driving test examiners supplementing their
salaries by demanding bribes but few cases ever result in
disciplinary
or legal action.
Agence France Presse - June 19, 2001.
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