MOH to reconsider advertising guidelines

The Ministry of Health (MOH) will revise its advertising guidelines after finding evidence of many healthcare organisations flouting the regulations under the Private Hospitals and Medical Clinics Act.

The MOH has received more than 120 complaints so far this year regarding the use of language in certain healthcare organisations’ advertising campaigns. The regulations state that medical organisations are not allowed to use phrases such as “preferential rates”, “State-of-the-art” and “Singapore’s no. 1” as they could encourage readers to use the services advertised.

A review is now taking place as some have deemed the regulations to be “outdated”, as they do not take into account certain grey areas including advertorials, search engine marketing and the use of social media platforms as part of an advertising campaign.
Another area that is being considered is the practice of paying bloggers to review a company’s healthcare products or services, and asking stakeholders to “like” their Facebook page.

The Singapore Medical Association (SMA) has welcomed the review, and is supporting the MOH and the Singapore Medical Council (SMC) in their aim to develop a consistent set of guidelines that take into account these emerging forms of marketing.