U.K. DOCTORS WARNED

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28958, 28 July 1959, Page 6

U.K. DOCTORS WARNED

B.M.A. Directive On Advertising <N.Z Press Association— Com/ngNtl LONDON, July 26 Seventy thousand British doctors were warned yesterday to keep their names out of television and radio, and their pictures out of newspapers, according to the “Sunday Dispatch.” Neither must they put up too elaborate a nameplate outside their surgeries. The warning, sent through the post, by the British Medical Association, applied to general practitioners and Royal surgeons alike.

When great new medical advances were made, when brilliant new surgical operations were performed, those responsible must remain anonymous—no names, no clues to identity, nothing, the newspaper said. It was the stiffest reminder yet given to the profession and followed complaints that some doctors were getting new patients by “advertising." If the code is broken offenders are liable to have their names struck off the medical register, according to the “Sunday Dispatch.”

Doctors were also warned to avoid discussion in the newspapers on controversial points of medical science.

The “Sunday Dispatch” saw problems ahead for the B.M.A. itself in view of the warning. “In future the B.M.A.’s bosses cannot, as they have done in the past, appear by name on television to present to the public the doctors’ claim for a rise in pay.

“Celebrated surgeons on the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons, who appeared by name on television to raise moneys for their colleges, will be forbidden to repeat the performance,” it said.