The Hanoi Health Department ordered Maria Clinic to repay the woman, a teacher identified as D.T.K.Q., nearly VND24 million (US$1,150). The agency levied an additional VND11.5 million penalty for marketing services beyond the clinic’s license.

Q., who lives in the capital’s Dong Da District, reportedly visited the health center in April to have her contraceptive ring examined. After a series of ultrasounds and tests of vaginal fluid, urine, and blood, Dr. Lei Hong diagnosed Q. with genital warts and warned it would develop into cancer without treatment.

Q. rejected the treatment, but after she returned home, a nurse called to give her details on the disease, saying Q. risked transmitting it to her husband and children.

During a meeting with inspectors and Q. yesterday, Pham Thi Minh Trang, the clinic’s representative, suggested Q.’s fears might have stemmed from a translation or miscommunication problem with the Chinese doctor or his interpreter.

The patient eventually accepted the treatment, but halted it four days into what should have been a 15-day process. Q. then turned to a public hospital, deciding that what she’d paid Maria Clinic, VND24,394,000, was exorbitant. The figure was slightly higher than the VND23,894,000 in damages the clinic eventually owed her.

At the state-run hospital, doctors told Q. she had no gynecological diseases, prompting her to file a complaint with the Health Department.

After yesterday’s decision, Trang said the clinic would seriously review the case to prevent future repeats. Officials could not meet with Dr. Hong because he had returned to China.

Investigators also charged Maria Clinic VND11.5 million for TV commercials offering services not specified in its license, for not posting prices of some services, and for having nurses consult with patients.

Chief inspector Nguyen Viet Cuong said this wasn’t the first time the clinic incurred penalties. In 2011, it employed foreign doctors without practitioner’s licenses and launched ads similar to the recent ones, according to Dat Viet Newspaper.