DOCTORS WHO ADVERTISE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20152, 12 January 1929, Page 12

DOCTORS WHO ADVERTISE.

MEDICAL COUNCIL'S VIEWS. MORE ELASTICITY ALLOWED. [from our own correspondent.] LONDON, Nov. 20. A modification of the attitude of the General Medical Council on the question of doctors advertising was tho interpretation placed bv a well-known London doctor on a decision arrived at by the council yesterday. It concerned Lieuten-ant-Colonel George Bidie, L.R.C.I*., M.R.C.S., who was found guilty before a tribunal of 40 of his colleagues of "advertising for tho purpose of promoting his own professional advantage." The allegation against LieutenantColonel Bidie was that he had allowed his name to appear in a brochure advertising "Sunray Treatments," a commercial undertaking by which he was employed in his professional capacity. ITo explained in evidence that when he first saw the proof of the brochure his name was not in it, and later ho was assured that his name would not be associated with any advertising matter. Some months later, when ho sought advice on the subject of his name appearing in the brochure, ho gave up his position. The decision of the council was to warn him against such conduct in the future. A well-known London doctor says:—"A good many medical bodies are showing much more elasticity in their views about a doctor advertising,., and one is glad to see that the General Medical Council is not taking now such a stringent view of the relations between the profession and tho public. They are realising that they have got to move .with the times."