Crackdown on GPs who tout bogus cures

[Sheri Nakken]

I posted the US one that no one is sure really is real

And it seems we are seeing this all over now.

UK reports in the Times this week on flaws in complementary medicine
practitioners
Now Australia

The push is on

Who is to say they are
Sheri

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/01/ ... 54793.html

Crackdown on GPs who tout bogus cures
By Ruth Pollard, Health Reporter
January 12, 2004

A NSW government committee wants medical registration
boards to get tough on doctors and nurses who promote
bogus health remedies, in a drive to clamp down on a
million-dollar industry it says preys on unwary
consumers desperate for a cure.

The committee has also signalled it will prosecute
media organisations that run advertisements promoting
false claims. It will force companies to back up
health claims about their products before they are
allowed to market them. Boosting expenditure on
consumer education is also on the agenda.

From nasal sprays that "cure" impotence and premature
ejaculation to herbal hangover tonics and "live blood
analysis", the list of products and diagnostic
techniques referred to the NSW Government's Health
Claims and Consumer Protection Advisory Committee is
extensive, said its chairman, John Dwyer.

"These sorts of claims . . . are often carried out not
by alternative therapists but by registered doctors
and nurses," Professor Dwyer said.

"There are four or five companies that get fined, go
out of business and bounce back under new names the
next day. Clearly the penalties are not great enough
to prevent these companies from continuing to trade."

The 20-member committee, which includes
representatives from NSW Health, the Pharmacy Guild of
Australia, the Complementary Health Care Council of
Australia, the Australian Medical Association, the
Department of Fair Trading and numerous consumer
representatives, has invited a number of advertising
managers to its next meeting.

"That might make them be a lot more careful before
their airwaves, newspapers or magazines are used to
promote fraudulent health care claims," Professor
Dwyer said.

Critical of what he called buck passing between state
bodies such as Fair Trading and federal entities such
as the Therapeutic Goods Administration, Professor
Dwyer said governments should devote more resources to
protect consumers.

"If you don't stop people making wild diagnostic or
therapeutic claims, it is very hard to see how you
will rein any of this in and give consumers some
protection.
"For the chronically ill who may suspend judgement and
get robbed in the process . . . it is unconscionable
[for companies to say] they can cure these diseases."

The NSW Medical Board and the NSW Nurses Registration
Board should step in and deregister doctors and nurses
promoting products found to be fraudulent, he said.

"There are doctors in this town doing faecal
transplants [and] carrying out weird experiments on
people . . . What is the point of having a board that
is meant to be monitoring medical standards when
[these] doctors are doing what 99 per cent of their
peers say is witchcraft?"

The deputy registrar of the NSW Medical Board, Anne
Scahill, said the board took action when matters
involving doctors were brought to its attention, and
it had undertaken significant prosecutions over the
years.

"It is unlawful for a medical practitioner to
advertise that they can do something that gives [the
consumer] a reasonable expectation of beneficial
treatment when that is not the case," Ms Scahill said.
Other registration boards, the Health Care Complaints
Commission and the director-general of NSW Health
could also take on matters relating to dubious health
claims, she said.

The Therapeutic Goods Administration deals with at
least 150 complaints a year about the advertising of
so-called health products. These were dealt with by
various government bodies, including state and
territory health departments, the Therapeutic Goods
Advertising Code Council and pharmacy boards, the
TGA's spokeswoman said.
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Sheri Nakken, R.N., MA, Classical Homeopath
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