Cosmetic institute in Nghe An suspended but still operating openly
The beauty salon on Nguyen Van Cu Street (Vinh City) was fined and suspended nearly a month ago, but it is still operating openly. After the incident was exposed due to customer complaints, the authorities are shifting responsibility to each other.
Punish but not announce
On December 23, Mr. Ho Sy Dung - Chairman of the People's Committee of Truong Thi Ward (Vinh City) said that the locality had just sent officials to work directly with Dr Han International Aesthetic Institute (No. 72, Nguyen Van Cu Street) to request this cosmetic facility to comply with the suspension of operations according to the penalty decision of Vinh City People's Committee.
“Currently, this facility has complied. Before that, we did not receive notice from the Vinh City Health Department, so we did not know to monitor this cosmetic facility and ask them to comply with the suspension of operations,” said Mr. Dung.
Accordingly, on November 22, the interdisciplinary inspection team of Vinh City People's Committee discovered that this cosmetic facility used drugs, substances, and equipment to intervene in the human body (Meso injection, Laser) to change skin color (skin, lips, face) to tattoo, spray, and embroider on the skin using injectable anesthetics at facilities that are not hospitals with cosmetic specialties or cosmetic clinics or other medical examination and treatment facilities with specialized scope of activities in cosmetic specialties.
On November 27, Ms. Tran Thi Cam Tu - Vice Chairman of Vinh City People's Committee, issued a decision to fine the owner of Dr Han Premium International Aesthetic Institute 25 million VND. The additional penalty is to suspend operations for 4.5 months from November 27. However, this cosmetic facility continued to operate openly and did not comply with the request to stop operations.
On the morning of December 18, a customer crying in front of this beauty salon attracted the attention of many people. Accordingly, the elderly woman had a scar on her face and had signed a contract for 8 million VND with the beauty salon to treat the scar and had paid half of the amount. On December 18, this customer came to the beauty salon and was asked by the beauty salon to pay the full amount before continuing the treatment, but the woman did not agree...
After the incident attracted public attention, it was revealed that this beauty facility was currently suspended. Speaking to the press, Ms. Ho Thi Hoa - Head of the Vinh City Health Department said that she had assigned the People's Committee of Truong Thi Ward to inspect and handle the matter, and "the responsibility belongs to the ward".
Meanwhile, Mr. Ho Sy Dung - Chairman of the People's Committee of Truong Thi Ward said that the ward did not receive any notice from the Health Department about monitoring this beauty salon after being fined and suspended from operation. According to Mr. Dung, although the penalty decision was issued on November 27 and this beauty salon was also suspended from operation from that date, it was not until December 20 that the People's Committee of Truong Thi Ward received a notice from the Health Department of Vinh City.
In the notice signed by Ms. Ho Thi Hoa, issued on December 18, information about the content of the penalty, the time the cosmetic facility was suspended from operation, at the same time, requested the People's Committee of Truong Thi Ward to supervise the suspension of operation of the above facility and strictly handle according to regulations if the facility continues to operate during the suspension period...
These actions show signs of irregularities in the handling of violations at this beauty salon. For some reason, despite being fined and suspended from operation, for a long time, the Health Department did not send a notice to the Ward People's Committee to inspect and supervise the Dr Han Premium International Beauty Salon, but only promptly issued a notice on the day the customer of this beauty salon came to "make a scene", causing public concern. Is there a cover-up for the violating beauty salon to continue operating?
Responding to this issue, Ms. Ho Thi Hoa said that the inspection and punishment process was conducted objectively, without cover-ups. "At the time of the inspection on November 22, we made a record and requested that this beauty facility stop operating from that date. At that time, in the inspection team, a representative of the Ward People's Committee was also present and knew about it," Ms. Hoa said.
According to the reporter's investigation, before being inspected and fined by the Vinh City People's Committee, the inspection team of the Nghe An Department of Health also inspected the Dr Han Premium International Aesthetic Institute. At the time of inspection, the team discovered that the facility had laser and wave machines without invoices or documents. The facility is also not allowed to use these devices to serve customers. The owner of the facility said that "the machines with waves and lasers have not been used on customers", because they did not detect any "red-handed" acts, so the inspection team did not have enough basis to conclude that the facility violated the law.
Beauty salon mysteriously “disappears” after being denounced
Also in Vinh City, while Dr Han Premium Aesthetic Institute was suspended but still operating, Berry Clinic Aesthetic Institute, although not suspended, has suddenly closed for many months now, confusing many customers.
Among them, Ms. LTT (38 years old, residing in Vinh City) said that it has been nearly 4 months since the date of filing the complaint, but until now she has not received a response from the authorities. The beauty salon that she filed the complaint against has since stopped operating, and the staff and management of this facility cannot be contacted.
“I have submitted a petition to the authorities, but I don’t understand why there has been no result so far. The phone numbers of the staff and managers here are no longer reachable,” said Ms. T.
In the complaint, Ms. T. said that on August 15, she went toBerry Clinic International Aesthetic Institute(No. 6, Mai Hac De Street) to have her lips tattooed at an agreed price of 4 million VND paid in advance. However, when Ms. T. lay down, a woman wearing a blouse, claiming to be Dr. Tham, came and said she would be the one to do it for her.
“After lying down, these staff continued to persuade me and whispered to me to do other services. The person who called herself Dr. Tham kept touching my ear, saying that my ear was crooked and had bad feng shui, so I had to fix it to have “lucky ears”. I said I didn’t have any money, so she said I had to pay on credit. At that point, I was suspicious. Besides, since I didn’t need it, I firmly refused and asked them to absolutely not do anything more,” Ms. T. said.
However, according to Ms. T., while she was having her lips tattooed, she felt a sharp pain in her ear. “I sat up and asked, ‘What are you doing to my ear?’, and she said she didn’t do anything. A moment later, I felt a burning sensation in my ear, so I asked again and she admitted that she had already done her “lucky ears”. At this point, the staff said that all the services were done and showed me a bill of 30 million VND, of which 15 million VND was for the “lucky ears”, 15 million VND for the smile lines, not to mention the 4 million VND for the lip tattoo that I had paid in advance,” Ms. T. said, adding that during the process of being blindfolded, she did not feel like she was having her smile lines done, and afterwards, she did not see any changes on her face. However, she was still charged.
Returning home, on the evening of August 15, Ms. T. immediately had swelling and bleeding at the site of the needle puncture in her ear. Ms. T. texted a person claiming to be Dr. Tham and was prescribed antibiotics. However, in the following days, the more antibiotics she took, the more serious her condition became. On August 20, unable to bear it any longer, Ms. T. was taken to Nghe An General Hospital by her family. There, doctors diagnosed her with bilateral ear abscesses after an unknown cosmetic procedure. A day later, she underwent surgery to drain the widespread inflammation in her jaw and face...
After Nghe An Newspaper published an article reflecting on the matter, and Ms. T. also sent a petition to the authorities, this beauty clinic was closed. In the notice posted on the door, this beauty clinic stated “Temporarily closed for repairs and upgrades for 20 days…”. However, after nearly 4 months, according to the reporter’s records, Berry Clinic has not reopened. This move has also caused many other customers who have used services at this beauty clinic to suffer.
“I paid this beauty salon for the service, but it took many treatments over a long period of time to finish. It was clearly stated in the contract. But for some reason, the beauty salon stopped operating, making it impossible for me to continue using the service, but they also did not refund my money. For the past few months, I have tried every way to contact the beauty salon manager but have not been able to meet them to talk,” said a female customer in Vinh City.
Regarding this cosmetic facility, the Head of the Vinh City Health Department said that after receiving the feedback, the unit went down to inspect and the cosmetic facility had stopped operating. "We also contacted the People's Committee of Ha Huy Tap Ward, the ward leader said that they had inspected this cosmetic facility. But up to now, we have not received any report. This cosmetic facility has not registered its operations with the Vinh City Health Department," Ms. Hoa added.