The Decision to Suspend the License of a Dental Clinic Was Partially Invalidated

• 2021-10-18

By the order of the Minister of Health of the Republic of Armenia, the license granted to the Company by the Ministry of Health for providing medical assistance and services in therapeutic dentistry, surgical dentistry, orthopedic dentistry, and dental technical and radiological services was suspended for certain doctors until the reasons for the violations were rectified.
Addressing the key issue for resolving the case, which is whether the Company, holding licenses for therapeutic dentistry, surgical dentistry, and orthopedic dentistry, which are included within the scope of family dentistry services, needs a separate license to provide family dentistry services, the Court ruled that the Company, possessing a license for narrow-specialized types of dental medical assistance and services (therapeutic, surgical, and orthopedic dentistry), is also considered to have obtained a license for family dentistry services, based on the provisions of Article 9, Part 3 of the RA Law on “Principles of Administrative Proceedings and Administrative Process” and Clause 22 of Annex 1 of Decision No. 1275-N of October 29, 2009. Family dentistry includes therapeutic, surgical, and orthopedic dentistry, and according to the list established by RA Government Decision No. 276-N of March 27, 2008, it is considered a primary medical service.
Next, the Court considered the issue of whether the requirement for retraining in the last five years applied to healthcare workers. The Court observed that the requirement for healthcare workers to undergo retraining every five years was only introduced on May 12, 2016. That is, before May 12, 2016, healthcare workers (nurses) were not required to undergo retraining every five years. This obligation had not been established by Decision No. 330 of the RA Government dated July 19, 1994, as referenced by the respondent.
Therefore, the Court concluded that the changes made by Decision No. 1202-N of October 30, 2014, to Decision No. 1275-N of October 29, 2009, could only be applied, and thus have negative consequences, after the changes came into effect, which would be after the five-year period on May 12, 2020.
Furthermore, the Court found the applicant's arguments to be substantiated regarding the applicability of the Supreme Court’s ruling from Administrative Case No. VD/2127/05/11 dated July 18, 2014, which required that administrative acts be duly reasoned.
Regarding the suspension of the licenses due to the absence of documentation confirming one of the doctors' post-graduate education, the Court correctly concluded that following amendments made by RA Government Decision No. 1202-N on October 30, 2014, post-graduate education became a mandatory requirement for all types of dental services, except for radiological diagnosis, which requires special training.
However, according to the facts of the case, the specific doctor in question did not have any post-graduate education documents, and therefore the claim for invalidating the order of the Minister of Health concerning this doctor was groundless and should be rejected.
Thus, the Court decided to partially uphold the claim.

Note: The decision in Administrative Case No. VD/9109/05/19 of the Administrative Court of the Republic of Armenia has entered into legal force.