IN PURSUIT OF its mandate to enforce a code of ethics, the Ghana Medical and Dental Council (GMDC) around mid-2003 hauled one of its members, Dr Eric Ntiamoah Mensah, before its Penal Committee to answer charges of alleged self-advertising in breach of the GMDC Code of Ethics.

He is said to have committed the offence through the Complete Woman column which he wrote weekly in The Mirror on preventive health tips for women on behalf of the Christian Professionals Fellowship (CPF) of which he is a member.

The CPF subsequently launched a public campaign through press conferences and paid advertisement protesting the GMDC decision and accusing it of playing favourites and deliberately frustrating young professional doctors, who instead of joining the lucrative gravy train of the Brain Drain syndrome, had elected to be patriotic by staying behind.

The accusation was in reference to Dr Felix Anyah, the Director of Trinity Medical Centre, Accra who is a member of GDMC Penal Committee and a 2001 awardee of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, as well as a columnist in the same Mirror. The Penal Committee sieves complaints against doctors and dentists for alleged breaches of the GDMC’s Code of Ethics.

Dr Anyah, in a paid rebuttal, rejected the CPF’s claim that his recognition by the CIM implied that he had been advertising himself contrary to the code of the ethics of his profession of which he is a part enforcer. He also disclosed his long-running battle with his colleagues on the Penal Committee on the obsoleteness of the portion of the code on advertising, its unconstitutionality, in terms of the 1992 Constitution, and the need for a review.

A question obviously begs for an answer. What are these controversial anti-advertising provisions of the GMDC Code of Ethics?

They are: 1. Any change of address of an established clinic, surgery or consulting home may be announced by a publication in the press in the following manner: “It is announced for the information of the public that CLINIC XYZ, formerly at ABC has been moved to DEF.” There should be not more than three such publications.

2. Sign Boards, Door Plates should be of reasonable size and should not exceed 24” by 18”. The writing on the Sign Board or Door Plate shall be his name, qualifications, titles (if any) and the name of a speciality he is registered by the Council to practice. Sign Boards with arrows should not exceed two in number.

3. A practitioner shall not directly or indirectly apply or seek professional business, or do or permit in the carrying out of his practice any act or thing which can be reasonably regarded as advertising or calculated to attract business unfairly.

4. Talks, public articles or letters, public lectures, radio or television talks should be couched in a modest manner and should in no way promote the personal capabilities of the speaker or writer nor reflect adversely on professional colleagues. Where publications relating to talks, articles, interviews or television appearances by a practitioner appear to offend the above section, the practitioner should disclaim the publication publicising him, inadvertently or otherwise, and request the publisher to refrain from repeating the offending publication and report the matter to the Council.

5. Any change of address or surgery or consulting hours may be communicated, under cover, to patients of practitioner but no newspaper or other public announcement shall be made.

These, in a nutshell, are the major non-advertising provisions in the GMDC Code of Ethics. Apart from the fact that two of the provisions contradict each other, the code is very, very conservative; too conservative actually.

But, there is the need for caution in criticising them, especially by non doctors. There is the fact that they have accepted it all these years without complaining until now. The fact of the matter is that, to begin with this ultra conservatism of the medical profession was not in Ghana alone; it was worldwide.

But the world has moved on, and the GMDC needs to move with the times.

According to reports reaching us, the American Supreme Court in 1982 upheld a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) order permitting advertising by doctors and dentists.

As a result the American Medical Association has adopted guidelines prohibiting misleading, deceptive and offensive advertising.

In Britain, the House of Lords has permitted advertising by doctors and dentists on condition that they are legal, decent, honest and truthful.

Much of the profits being raked in by business across the world are driven by advertising. And medical practice, especially in the private sector cannot be an exception. To build and equip the smallest of clinics these days requires tens, if not hundreds, of millions of cedis.

Even the very rich depend on loans to fund new investments, and very few would like to invest in a sector where they are not permitted to advertise to expose the quality of equipment and facilities that they have on offer so as to maximise profits, which would in turn lead to better remuneration.

The 1992 Constitution guarantees freedom of expression, and advertising is part of that freedom.

All in all we think there is a good case for the Ghana Medical and Dental Council to take a second look at the parts of its Code of Ethics which tends to inhibit such a good and educative columns for our wives and daughters as the Complete Woman Column in The Mirror or a recently helpful programme that offered patients the knowledge that they do not have to rely on quacks to ease their problems with piles but that there are modern methods of fighting it as was recently shown on TV 3.

And we will urge them to look at it urgently and end this unfavourable exposure in the media.