How to report a suspected unlicensed medical provider in China

Protect the patient before opening an administrative case

If someone may have a medical emergency in mainland China, call 120. For a non-emergency concern during ongoing care, ask a verified medical institution or appropriately registered clinician for records and a safe continuity route. Do not stop treatment, repeat a dose, move a patient or substitute a provider on the basis of this page; qualified professionals decide urgency and care.

Use 110 for a current police emergency, threat, violence or urgent public-safety situation within its scope, not merely a failed registry search. Do not confront staff, enter a restricted room, seize equipment or try to close premises. A licensing report documents an administrative lead; it does not deliver emergency care or police protection.

Separate safety from reporting: 120 is the medical-emergency route, while a suspected licensing issue requires factual verification by the competent local authority.

Identify the institution, practitioner and service separately

Record the Chinese name, exact address and room, city and district, date, website or platform, and service presented as diagnosis or treatment. An English brand, wellness label, company name, group logo or rented room may not be the registered medical entity; an unfamiliar trade name also does not prove no registered entity exists.

For the individual, record only presented information: Chinese name, role, badge, department, appointment and institution. Current rules distinguish institution registration from clinic filing and require work within approved or filed diagnostic scope. Under the physician-registration rules revised in June 2026, the registered practice place is the specific medical or health institution and additional regular practice institutions must be registered. Officials must still verify the entity, person, any applicable exception and authority for the exact service.

• Institution or clinic: legal name, address, licence or filing and diagnostic scope
• Person: full Chinese name, stated role, registration and relationship to that institution
• Encounter: date, location, service advertised, booked and actually supplied

Run official checks without turning search results into findings

Start at the National Health Commission data-query gateway, which links hospital-practice registration and practising-physician searches. Search with the exact Chinese name, province and institution requested by the query service. Compare the result with the provider's official page, appointment and on-site information. Save the query date, terms and result URL or screenshot so the authority can reproduce what you saw.

No result can reflect spelling, province, name change, data timing, a different registered entity, a clinic filing route or a permitted practice arrangement that a public user cannot evaluate. A positive result also does not verify the exact room, date, person, service or clinical quality. Recheck identifiers, then ask the local health authority to confirm the applicable record rather than declaring that the search proves misconduct.

Prepare a neutral and privacy-limited evidence pack

Create a chronology from direct observations. Include dates, address, booking channel, service, names shown, payment recipient, receipt, provider record and the exact advertisement or message that caused concern. Keep original files, URLs and transaction references. Label recollections, translations and unknowns rather than presenting them as facts.

Send only the patient and identity information needed for intake through the authority's published channel. Keep originals secure and ask whether a redacted working copy is acceptable. Do not impersonate a patient, use deception, access another person's account, alter a document or circulate health information. Investigators—not reporters—inspect, obtain records and preserve official evidence.

• What was personally observed and by whom
• What a document, account or advertisement states verbatim
• What remains uncertain and requires official verification
• Where originals are stored and which copies were submitted

Send the lead to the competent local health authority

National law permits reports to county-level-and-above health authorities and other competent departments. The unlicensed-practice standards assign verification to the local health authority and its supervision body where the conduct occurred, and require published complaint channels. Find the current district, county or city health commission or health-supervision contact on an official government site.

If that channel is unclear, 12345 may route a non-emergency local-government concern. State the location and ask which health authority has jurisdiction, how transfer is recorded and which reference identifies it. Do not assume 12320 has the same local function everywhere or treat a 12320 listing or historic campaign telephone as the specialist licensing-investigation channel. Recheck every local channel before submitting.

Ask the receiving office to verify registration, clinic filing, practitioner status and service scope. Do not ask it to endorse your accusation or promise a particular sanction.

Understand intake, investigation and administrative outcome

Submit the entity, address, dates, chronology, document list and a request for licensing verification. Ask for an acknowledgment and any identity or authorization requirements. Under the current health-administrative-penalty procedure, after preliminary investigation or verification, a qualifying clue is filed within seven working days; a complex matter may be extended by another seven working days with approval. Those periods apply only once the stated formal conditions are met and are not intake, final-answer, inspection, penalty or remedy deadlines.

Authorized personnel may inspect a location, question relevant people, obtain records and preserve evidence under formal procedures. The reporter should not perform those acts. The authority may confirm a registration or filing, request better identifiers, transfer an out-of-jurisdiction matter, find insufficient grounds, open a case or take another lawful step. Ask for the status and information that can be disclosed without treating silence, transfer or intake as proof either way.

Keep licensing, dispute, consumer and criminal routes separate

A health-authority licensing report asks whether an institution, person or service complied with administrative requirements. A dispute arising from diagnosis or treatment uses separate records, negotiation, mediation, administrative mediation or litigation routes under the medical-dispute framework. A hospital service complaint may also be separate. None automatically decides clinical fault, compensation or whether the patient should receive a refund.

The 2026 market-supervision rules cover consumer complaints and reports within market-regulator responsibilities through 12315 and other published channels. A payment, advertising or consumer issue may be categorized there, but 12315 does not replace health-authority licensing decisions. Likewise, a reporter should not label conduct criminal. Health investigators can transfer suspected crimes, and 110 handles police reports and urgent safety matters within its scope. State facts and let each competent body classify them.

Track the official record without naming and shaming

Keep the intake reference, receiving office, transfer details, dates, document inventory and responses. Add new material once, identifying what changed. Ask whether the matter remains at intake, was transferred, became an administrative case or reached a disclosable outcome. A routing message is not a finding; do not send inconsistent versions to several offices.

Online exposure is not an official report. Publishing names, faces, identity numbers, medical records, allegations or a location before verification can harm others and affect an investigation. This guide does not advise publicity or assess publication liability. Keep public statements out of this workflow; obtain qualified advice before any separate disclosure decision.