Indiantelevision.com Team

(28 February 2008 8:30 pm)

MUMBAI: Doctors "registered with the Karnataka Medical Council or elsewhere and practising in Karnataka" can no longer advertise their professional services, reports The Hindu.

Issuing an order, the Karnataka Medical Council has said that "every registered medical practitioner… shall abide by the Code of Medical Ethics vide 6.1.1. and 6.1.2. including the institutions. Any violation by an individual/institution will be treated as 'professional misconduct' and action will be initiated under Section 15 of the Karnataka Medical Council Act."

The penalty could range from a warning to de-recognition for a year. Persistent violation could attract permanent de-recognition.

Karnataka Medical Council president Dr Chikkananjappa told The Hindu, "Many hospitals such as Manipal, Sagar Apollo, Wockhardt, Trinity and Ramakrishna Hospital are advertising themselves on a mass scale in newspapers, billboards and road medians."

This was against the Code of Medical Ethics, according to which doctors cannot publish their photographs, write articles with the intention of luring patients, advertise the hospitals they work in or claim false expertise in areas that they knew nothing about, Dr Chikkananjappa said.

He also informed that the council sent nearly 70 notices to doctors, hospitals, nursing homes, clinics and diagnostic centres for advertising themselves. Following this, 65 practitioners showed up and the council explained to them the 6.1.1. and 6.1.2. sections of the medical ethics code.

"Extending the order to institutions is not correct. Hospitals worldwide advertise their services, but doctors do not. Not to allow hospitals to advertise is taking it a little too far. As there is so much competition in this sector, how else can we advertise our services?" Wockhardt Hospital CEO Vishal Bali was quoted as saying.