The Travancore-Cochin Medical Council (TCMC) has censured one doctor in Thiruvananthapuram and two in Kozhikode for allowing themselves to be featured in advertisements in the media in violation of the provisions of the Indian Medical Council (Professional Conduct, Etiquette, and Ethics) Regulations, 2002.
The action follows a complaint filed by Campaign Against Pseudo Science Using Law and Ethics (CAPSULE) Kerala, a platform launched by the Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad.
According to the TCMC orders issued on August 14, copies of which are available with The Hindu, a photo of the doctor attached to V Care Skin and Piles Centre, Kattakkada, Thiruvananthapuram, was carried along with an advertisement in a Malayalam newspaper on March 19, 2019, claiming that the clinic offered haemorrhoid symptoms treatment for the first time in Kerala.
The names of the two doctors attached to PVS Hospital, Kozhikode, were found in an advertisement offering treatment for varicose vein in the April 2019 issue of a popular health magazine.
Professional norms
Section 6.1. of the Indian Medical Council Regulations Act says that soliciting of patients directly or indirectly, by a physician, by a group of physicians, or by institutions or organisations is unethical.
“A physician shall not make use of him / her (or his / her name) as subject of any form or manner of advertising or publicity through any mode either alone or in conjunction with others which is of such a character as to invite attention to him or to his professional position, skill, qualification, achievements, attainments, specialities, appointments, associations, affiliations or honours and/or of such character as would ordinarily result in his self-aggrandizement,” it says.
Doctors’ stand
The doctor from Kattakkada claimed that the advertisement was placed without his knowledge. While one of the two doctors in Kozhikode pointed out that he had snapped ties with the hospital much before the advertisement was placed in the magazine, the other claimed that his consent was not taken before it was published.
The modern medicine ethics committee of the TCMC, however, pointed out that the doctors cannot wash their hands of the act of being featured in advertisements. Later, they tendered apologies and the TCMC censured them.
