Doctor's advert breached code on promotions
Medical Council will issue warning letter for pushing beauty treatment
A doctor is to be served with a warning letter after the Medical Council yesterday ruled an advertisement he placed for his services breached its code of conduct.
Siu Ting-wing was convicted of one charge of having 'sanctioned, acquiesced in or failed to take adequate steps to prevent the publication of an advertisement in Ming Pao Daily on 27 February, 2003, which contained his name, title, information about his experience, skills and reputation or practice'.
The ad concerned the intense pulsed-light-source (IPL) treatment available at a beauty centre.
The code stipulates that while doctors may provide users with appropriate information about their services, they should not issue promotional material.
Delivering the verdict, Medical Council chairwoman Felice Lieh Mak said the evidence clearly showed conduct that amounted to the promotion of IPS technology and the beauty centre.
The council decided to serve Dr Siu with a warning letter, which will be gazetted.
Dr Siu's past record of service to the community, and his bankruptcy, had all been considered, Professor Lieh Mak said.
Speaking on Dr Siu's behalf, defence counsel Alfred Fung Kwok-chor argued that the code should not be garbled to the extent that Dr Siu's freedom of expression - as afforded by the Basic Law, the Bill of Rights and the International Covenant on Political and Civil Rights - would be infringed upon.
Professor Lieh Mak countered that freedom of expression was not absolute and must be balanced against the interests of the community and the profession.
Four similar charges against Dr Siu were dropped because of defects in the phrasing of the charges. The dropped charges related to an advert he placed in the Oriental Daily News in March last year and to his appearance in a TV commercial on the same day the advertisement was published.
The charges said his actions 'could be construed' as a promotion and contained material 'likely to imply' that he was promoting IPL technology offered by Bonjour Beauty and the Medical Technology Centre.
Professor Lieh Mak said the use of the phrases 'could be construed as' and 'likely to imply' rendered the charges defective by unduly increasing their scope.
'By casting the net so wide as to extend beyond the scope of the prohibitions, [the four] charges in fact alleged the commission of offences which are not created by the code.
'For that reason we have no alternative but to dismiss these four charges,' she said.
'If the proper charges had been brought we would have found him guilty,' she said.
The Medical Council is consulting the profession on a proposal it endorsed last week to allow doctors to place ads in newspapers and magazines listing their qualifications, information about their clinics, and their charges for five services.
