Concerns over medical missteps

TDT | Manama

Email : editor@newsofbahrain.com

Doctors’ social media adverts have broken Bahrain’s medical advertising rules 20 times since 2022, health regulators have told the Shura Council.

In a written response to member Ejlal Bubshait, the Health Ministry said the National Health Regulatory Authority (NHRA) had logged breaches involving both doctors’ professional classification and the content of health adverts posted online.

The Authority ordered those involved to correct their status and remove the offending material from all platforms, and later confirmed that they had done so.

Questions

The questions put to the ministry centred on how NHRA applies Articles 21, 22 and 26 of Decree-Law No. 7 of 1989 on the practice of human medicine and dentistry.

These provisions bar doctors from combining medical work with advertising for pharmaceutical or medical equipment companies, from promoting themselves in ways that do not match the dignity of the profession, and from disclosing confidential information obtained through their work except in specific cases laid down in law. The ministry said that, on the basis of Article 22 and its amendments, NHRA had formed an internal committee to oversee and approve health-related advertising.

Its role is to keep medical adverts within the legal and ethical frame while allowing useful health information to reach the public.

Guide

To guide doctors and other health workers, the committee has produced a health advertising guide and posted it on the NHRA website.

According to the response, the guide is meant to make it easier for those in the sector to follow the Authority’s rules and conditions and to cut down the spread of inaccurate or misleading material in the health field.

The committee reviews adverts before approval or after publication, checking that they follow recognised scientific sources and the legal rules governing medical practice.

Claims

It examines the claims in each advert against trusted references, and makes sure any advert linked to a doctor, nurse or other practitioner matches the licence issued by NHRA and the terms attached to that licence.

The ministry added that the committee keeps an eye on adverts in print, broadcast and online media, including social media platforms, to see if they meet the Authority’s rules.

When breaches are found, the committee starts the enforcement steps that led, in the 20 cases mentioned, to written warnings and the removal of posts and clips.

The response noted that members of the public and health practitioners can write to the committee through an e-mail address if they suspect a breach of the advertising rules.