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Advertising is a necessary part of general practice, but don't make misleading claims.
DR Bruce Wauchope relies on advertising to let patients know about his medical practice so he can compete with an increasing number of skin cancer clinics.
For more than 10 years the Adelaide GP has run a successful melanoma diagnosis clinic from his general practice. His m clinic has a melanoma diagnosis rate 50 times higher than the state average, a result that has sparked the interest of University of Queenslandresearchers.
Dr Wauchope says he relies on advertising to differentiate his clinic from other skin cancer clinics.
He says criticism of these clinics by specialists is making it difficult for doctors who are doing a good job.
"So we advertise to say exactly what we do. We photo map the whole body. We assess every single mole with computerised dermoscopy .... Very few people do that."
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission says doctors do not use advertising to its full benefit.
In its guide to the Trade Practices Act for advertising and promoting medical and health services the ACCC writes: "[Advertising] could be used more by medical and health practitioners to make themselves better known to prospective patients and referring doctors to promote their specialities and explain pricing of services.
"Consumers would benefit not only from knowing more about a service, but also more about qualifications and experience of service providers."
This is one of the reasons why the rigid advertising restrictions that were once imposed on medical practices have been eased. In the past, some medical boards even restricted the size of signs GPs could erect at their practice.
But this doesn't mean GPs now have carte blanche in their approach to advertising.
GP leaders are adamantly opposed to the competitive and misleading advertising used by some medical clinics.
Dr Tony Hobbs, Australian General Practice Network chairman, believes competitive advertising should be banned. General practice marketing shouldn't go any further than advertising opening hours or accreditation status, he says.
"Aggressive marketing on TV and radio certainly goes beyond what we believe is ethical or professional."
Dr Hobbs cites the example of one patient who attended a skin clinic believing they would be consulting a specialist. This wasn't the case,...