JAKARTA - Local health authorities on Saturday (April 9) shut down an event in Jakarta held by Parkway Hospitals Singapore, accusing organisers of conducting illegal healthcare consultancies with Indonesian patients.

Parkway, however, has denied any wrongdoing, saying the event was a private networking luncheon it had organised for doctors from Indonesia. These include those who had previously attended its medical seminars in Singapore.

"Attendance was for doctors and by invitation only, and there were no patients or members of the public in the ballroom," said a Parkway spokesman responding to queries from The Straits Times on Sunday (April 10).

"No patient consultations took place during the event."

Ms Maria Margaretha, the head of healthcare services at the Jakarta Health Agency who led the joint operation, said the bust was the result of a tip-off from the Ikatan Dokter Indonesia (IDI), or Indonesian Doctors Association.

"We received a report from the Indonesian Doctors Association that there was an illegal healthcare consultancy," said Ms Maria in a report out in Tempo news on Sunday.

She added that organisers of the so-called seminar, held at Pullman Hotel in the capital, did not possess the proper permits from the Health Ministry and her agency.

"We wouldn't consider this as an issue if it was in accordance with regulations," said Ms Maria.

Officials from the Jakarta Health Agency and Indonesia's Health Ministry, as well as a team of immigration and police officers, arrived at the hotel at about 2pm on Saturday.

According to a report in Kompas news, the immigration department does not intend to take any further action in relation to the raid, but officials had apparently encountered a patient with his or her past medical report and X-ray films at the event.