LettersHong Kong health service ad rules should apply to all providers

In a recent episode of a televised singing contest, for example, multiple contestants were depicted visiting a Shenzhen-based clinic for dental treatments. Furthermore, promotional videos have been placed on official social media channels to highlight a proprietary technology.

As a specialist in respiratory medicine, I am mindful that healthcare professionals in Hong Kong, including medical and dental practitioners, are tightly governed by codes of professional conduct (published by the Medical Council and Dental Council of Hong Kong, respectively) which restrict so-called “practice promotion”, referring to publicity of a practitioner’s professional services. These restrictions are designed to reduce the risk that members of the public may be unduly influenced by media portrayals of healthcare outcomes, or led to assume that particular treatments and technologies are necessarily suitable for their own individual circumstances.

Against this background, it could be seen as a matter of legitimate public concern that healthcare providers and companies registered outside Hong Kong are able to promote their services directly to Hong Kong residents under different regulatory frameworks and advertising standards. Such advertising may encourage medical tourism for healthcare services that are subject to different systems of regulation, professional oversight and complaint mechanisms compared with those that apply locally, and members of the public may not always appreciate these distinctions when making health‑related decisions.

It would be in the public interest for the Office of the Communications Authority and the government to review the existing regulatory arrangements for health‑related advertising, with a view to ensuring that consistent, appropriately robust safeguards apply, regardless of where the healthcare provider is registered.