November 10, 2011
By Elias Mhegera, Opinion
THE move by doctors associations to ban commercial advertisement on medical services in Tanzania is timely. This in a way will help in maintaining medical ethics.
Recently, it had been brought to our attention that there have been a number of irregularities occurring in television stations where some doctors advertise their cures quite contrary to what their profession calls them to do.
For instance medicine and legal services are not counted as commercial services in this country for that matter it is not allowed to mix such advertisements in other commercial adverts. In some cases it has been reported that intern doctors vacate their residence premises to work in such clinic cum shops.
As of current practice, doctors are expected to maintain their oaths and work within the paradigms of service even at night; this is what counts medicine as a noble profession, not because people are earning juicy salaries from this profession, but because doctors can serve with empathy.
But behind the doctors mayhem was the constant advertisement of “Fiterawa, a miracle cure for stomach ulcers”. Doctors say that the prominence of this medicine is its advertisement side rather than its ability to cure. Ethics in this aspect must be maintained whatsoever
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