Myanmar’s junta shuts down 3 Mandalay hospitals

The junta has revoked the business licenses of three private hospitals in Myanmar’s central Mandalay region, it announced this week.

Palace, City and Kant Kaw hospitals had already been told to stop accepting patients because they were using staff belonging to the civil disobedience movement.

An order signed Monday by Dr. Myat Wunna Soe, secretary of the junta-led Private Health Industry Central Group said the licenses were revoked because the hospitals failed to comply with the licensing rules in Section 19 (a) of the Law Relating to Private Health Care Services.

This vague clause stipulates only that “a person who obtains a license for any private health care services shall … comply with the terms and conditions of the license.”

The junta arrested urologist and kidney surgeon Dr. Win Khaing, on Dec. 25 last year while he was working at the Palace Hospital.

The Mandalay University professor had been participating in the civil disobedience movement following the coup in February 2021.

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Dr. Win Khaing, a urologist and kidney surgeon who was arrested on Dec. 25, 2023, is seen in this file photograph. Credit: Citizen journalist

The junta detained several more disobedience movement doctors in Mandalay in the days that followed his arrest.

On Jan. 1, 2023, the junta ordered the temporary closure of five Mandalay hospitals, including the Palace, City and Kant Kaw.

No announcement has been made about the other two hospitals.

RFA’s calls to the junta spokesman for Mandalay region, Thein Htay, seeking comment on the decision to revoke the licenses, went unanswered.

The junta has cracked down on doctors who voice opposition to the military, sacking 557 and revoking their medical licenses for one year.

The Ministry of Health of the shadow National Unity Government announced on April 20 this year that 71 health workers had been killed and 836 arrested in the more than two years since the coup.

It said the junta attacked and seized equipment from 188 clinics and hospitals, damaged 59 ambulances and seized 49 more.

Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.