Shady practices in Hong Kong pain relief, ‘bone-manipulating’ centres in spotlight

Only three people were convicted in 35 cases of suspected violations of healthcare regulations related to centres offering pain relief or “bone-manipulating” services in the past three years, a Hong Kong government official revealed on Wednesday, as lawmakers raised concerns over such premises.

Lawmakers also called for more proactive efforts to regulate pain treatment centres as some provided bone-manipulating services, or osteopathy, carried out by non-healthcare professionals.

Undersecretary for Health Libby Lee Ha-yun said there were 35 suspected cases of violations of different regulations for healthcare professionals, such as those for traditional Chinese medicine practitioners or physiotherapists, while providing pain relief and bone-manipulating services from 2021 to the third quarter this year.

Only three were successfully convicted. The others were still being processed or could not be prosecuted, Lee said.

The small number of successful convictions was due to grey areas in advertisements for those pain-management services, she said.

“For example, in bone manipulating, are they using the methods of traditional Chinese medicine, physiotherapy or chiropractic? These were not stated clearly in the ads,” Lee said.