Health Ministry issues circular preventing medical doctors from advertising on media
- 3 years ago
The department of health specialties at the Ministry of Public Health issued a health circular to all health practitioners and health care facilities in the country regarding preventing them from using the media portals like websites, social media platforms and advertisements. This was issued with regards to following up on obligating frontline workers to the scope of specialization, therapeutic, and the surgical privileges given to them by the department and the officials.
The Department urged all the medical professionals and health facilities to abide by what is specified in the professional license given to them in terms of its type (temporary / permanent / visiting), degrees, titles, and type of specialization without any additions or modifications,
The practitioners have requested the health ministry to reconsider this decision, especially since the private health centers partners with the government health sector, as they constitute the health system in the country.
Dr. Ahmed Lutfi, a consultant in joint diseases and rheumatology, stated that the decision taken by the Ministry is right and falls in the interest of the doctor and the patient together.
He said: “The decision is in the interest of the doctor and the patient but it needs some organizational images and legal channels to communicate with patients, stressing that personal social networking sites for doctors are not an appropriate place to provide medical advice to patients, as it may result in a wrong understanding by the patient, or that the consultation leads to the description of a particular drug and is used in a certain way that causes harm to the patient, especially since some drugs require prescriptions, and have specific methods of use by the Ministry of Public Health that should not be talked about at all.
He further added: Pointing out that the means of communication Social is not a place to prescribe drugs, it may be a suitable place to raise awareness to prevent this disease based on the doctor’s specialty, but medical advice must be limited as it may result in complications that harm the patient and do not benefit him due to a misunderstanding of treatment.
Lutfi explained that “the remote medical consultation is controlled by controls, and it is recorded based on the patient’s knowledge. If any error occurs, it is possible to return to it and verify the circumstances of the matter, but social communication may not provide this feature because it is not a place in which the patient or the doctor trusts, especially and it is not a place for this kind of service.”
One of the consultant dermatologist and cosmetologist spoke on the reasons behind this decision. He said, “doctors do not provide consultations on their social platforms. Pointing out that this decision, although correct in the part related to advertisements, may allow non-specialists to float to the surface, and thus lead to the scene of specialists who play an awareness role in society.”
“Through their personal platforms or those of their medical facilities, noting that in most cases, medical advice is not provided to followers on social media, but a specialist may talk about a disease for the purpose of prevention,” he added.
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