MOH to review advertising restrictions for healthcare professionals

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The Ministry of Health (MOH) will be reviewing advertising controls to allow certain healthcare professionals to advertise their services in a safe and appropriate manner.

In a statement on Friday (7 March), MOH noted that currently, the Healthcare Services Act (HCSA) prohibits service providers that are not licensed by the ministry from advertising that they are able to “treat” a medical condition. This prohibition applies to both regulated and unregulated healthcare professionals who are not HCSA licensees and operate their own clinic.

Given the established standards of governance for professions set by a professional act or under the oversight of a professional association, the HCSA advertising controls will be reviewed to allow regulated professionals, such as clinical psychologists, speech therapists, and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practitioners, to advertise their services in a safe and appropriate way.

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MOH noted that these professionals will still have to adhere to the advertising requirements under HCSA, which include controls on content and the media to ensure accuracy of claims.

"For example, their advertisements must not contain exaggerated or inaccurate claims, such that they can mislead the public to consume unwarranted treatments. These professionals also cannot claim to treat medical conditions that are not within their scope of practice," MOH said in a statement.

At the MOH committee of supply debate on Friday (7 March), Janil Puthucheary, senior minister of health said, "Certain professions, such as allied health and TCM, are regulated under their respective professional acts. Their interventions are low risk, because they manage conditions in accordance with clear standards of practice set by their professional bodies."

"We will review the HCSA advertising controls to enable these selected professions to advertise their services. Even so, they will still have to ensure the accuracy of their advertisement," he added.

MOH isn't the only ministry to be evaluating ads in its industry. The Ministry of Education (MOE) of Singapore is reportedly working with the advertising industry to implement a code of conduct to curb fear-based advertising tactics in tuition centres.

According to CNA, in February this year, Chan Chun Sing, minister for education called out some tuition centres for guilt-tripping parents and creating a "fear of missing out".

He commented on tuition centres that allow specific students to be admitted, increasing success rates and boosting the centres' image, stating that the practice is unethical. Chan noted that parents should feel assured about their own decisions with regards to their children and not give in to external pressures.

In conversations with MARKETING-INTERACTIVE, Bryan Tan, chairman of the Advertising Standards Authority of Singapore (ASAS) confirmed that the authority met with MOE to share the role of ASAS in advertising self-regulation and the aspects to consider when implementing sector-specific advertising guidelines.

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