China to crack down on unlicensed medical practices

BEIJING - China will launch a year-long crackdown on illegal medical practices including unlicensed practitioners and beauty salons offering cosmetic surgery, a health official said on Thursday.

The crackdown will also target unlicensed clinics, quack doctors, and  unauthorized pharmacies that offer medical services, He Xiang, an official with the National Health and Family Planning Commission, told a press conference.

The crackdown will be jointly launched by the commission, the public security ministry, the country's top medicine regulators and the health section of the general logistics department of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. It will last from this month to September 2014.

China banned more than 14,100 people from unlicensed medical practices from 2010 to 2012. About 4,200 of them were handed over to judicial authorities suspected of breaking the law, according to He.