Many illegal advertising tricks in the medical field

SGGPO December 1, 2023 09:32

Departments and branches have discussed and agreed on solutions to help detect, prevent and thoroughly handle violations of the law in advertising activities in the medical field in the city.

Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Anh Dung, Deputy Director of Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health, spoke at the meeting.

On December 1, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health said it had just held a meeting with departments and branches to strengthen management of advertising activities in the medical field that affect the health and lives of people in Ho Chi Minh City.

According to the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health, through inspection and examination of the operations of medical examination and treatment facilities in the city, the Department of Health Inspectorate has promptly detected and handled violations of the law in the medical field by individuals and organizations, actively contributing to ensuring the health of local people.

However, recently, the state management work in the health sector of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health has also recorded a number of difficulties and challenges in detecting and handling subjects that commit violations in advertising activities in the health sector.

Subjects tend to take advantage of cyberspace to carry out advertising acts such as: Creating websites, accounts, pages, groups on social networking platforms (Facebook, Zalo, Tiktok, Youtube...) to carry out advertising acts, introduce the provision of medical examination and treatment services, buy and sell pharmaceutical products, medical equipment...

Some individuals post clips under the guise of sharing experiences and knowledge in medical examination and treatment; however, through the shared content, they advertise medical examination and treatment activities at the facility; impersonate doctors to advertise medical examination and treatment services, and post content and images that challenge state management agencies.

In addition, some subjects use images and reviews of influential people on the internet, famous artists or post advertisements on newspaper pages to attract and create trust for people.

At the meeting, departments and branches discussed and agreed on solutions to help detect, prevent and thoroughly handle violations of the law in advertising activities in the medical field in the city such as:

The Department of Health continues to strengthen inspection and post-inspection of advertising activities of establishments that have been granted a Certificate of Advertising Content in the medical field; detect and handle individuals and organizations that post advertising content in the medical field without a license or advertise in violation of the law.

The Department of Information and Communications shall take the lead in developing tools to manage advertising activities of individuals and organizations in the city, including advertising activities in the medical field; recommend the Ministry of Information and Communications to strengthen state management in the field of online advertising, and require cross-border service providers to be responsible for controlling and removing advertising content that violates the law in the medical field.

The Department of Culture and Sports shall strengthen communication work with public figures who participate in advertising activities in the medical field. They shall not participate in advertising activities in the medical field without confirmation of permitted advertising content from the management agency.

The City Police continue to coordinate with the Department of Health in ensuring security and order in the health sector. Accordingly, in the coming time, the Department of Health Inspectorate and the City Police will coordinate to strictly handle key and typical violations in medical advertising activities on the internet.

The City Police coordinated with the Department of Information and Communications to organize training, equip knowledge on identification and methods of collecting and consolidating documents of violations of individuals and organizations that take advantage of cyberspace to violate the law in the medical field to improve the effectiveness of inspection, examination and handling of violations.

Departments and branches should organize and carry out well the work of mobilizing the masses, disseminating and educating legal knowledge, understanding the methods and tricks of taking advantage of cyberspace to commit violations in the medical field, so that people can raise their awareness of prevention, not use products and services of individuals and subjects who violate the law to improve the effectiveness of social prevention.

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