WE WILL LIKE TO BE SEEN AS A RESOURCE AND AS AN INSTRUMENT FOR THE WORLD TO SEE AND KNOW THAT REAL HELP AND REAL HOPE ARE AVAILABLE TO PEOPLE YOKED BY THE AFFLICTION OF ADDICTION

The advertising of doctors' services

The GMC encourages doctors to provide factual information about their professional qualifications and services. The term 'advertising' is used by the GMC to mean the provision of information about doctors and their services, in any form, to the public or other members of the profession. There is a general requirement that any advertising in this country must be 'legal, decent, honest and truthful', and that it should conform with the other requirements of the British Code of Advertising Practice. But the advertising of doctors' services must be subject to additional restriction in order to ensure that the public is not misled or put at risk in any way. Having said this, we encourage the patient to have hope, where we know for a fact that overcoming an addiction is possible to achieve. As a fact, based on evidence from medical literature, and our faith, and not based on an advertising gimmick.

Information about the services we provide will be factual and verifiable.

We will usually accept patients only with a referral from a general practitioner or other appropriate health care professional unless there are good reasons to accept patients without a referral.

If we accept a patient without a referral from the patient's general practitioner, we will do so on the condition that the general practitioner will be informed, and provided we have the patient's consent. Except in emergencies or when it is impracticable, we will inform the general practitioner before starting treatment. If, for some reason we are unable to tell the patient's general practitioner, before or after providing treatment, we will undertake to be responsible for providing or arranging all after care which is necessary until another doctor agrees to take over.

We will not make claims about the quality of our services nor compare our services with those your colleagues provide. We will offer hope based on experience, but not offer guarantees of cures, nor exploit patients' vulnerability or lack of medical knowledge. This is not allowed by the GMC given the relationship of trust and confidence between a doctor and a patient.

Information published about our specialist services will include advice that a patient cannot usually be seen or treated by specialists, either in the NHS or private practice, without a referral, usually from a general practitioner.

Information that we publish about our services does not and will not put pressure on people to use ours or any particular service, for example by arousing ill-founded fear for their future health. Similarly, we will never advertise our services by visiting or telephoning prospective patients, either in person or through a deputy.

From: 'Good Medical Practice' General Medical Council, July 1998

From: 'Advertising', Guidance from the General Medical Council, October 1995