A CHINESE medical centre in York has come under fire from the advertising regulator which branded its leaflets "misleading".

The Herbgarden Chinese Medical Centre in Gillygate has now changed its advertising leaflets, replacing the word doctor with practitioner, following the decision by the Advertising Standards Agency.

A complaint was made to the ASA about the centre's leaflet headlined Can Chinese Medicine Help You? which claimed "All our doctors are well qualified, trained in both TCM (traditional Chinese medicine) and Western medicine. All of them have degrees from the Traditional Chinese Medical University in China and have many years of experience in treating various health problems."

The complainant, who is from York, challenged the claim because he believed "doctors" implied the practitioners had formal Western medical qualifications.

The complaint was upheld by the ASA, which told the centre to amend the advertisement to remove the implication that the practitioner held a general medical certificate and to remove the references to serious medical conditions.

In its ruling it said: "The Authority was concerned that the advertisement referred to serious medical conditions and considered that consumers could infer from the claim "All our doctors are well qualified, trained in both TCM and Western medicine" that the doctors also held a general medical qualification.

"Because the practitioner had a degree in Traditional Chinese Medicine only, the authority concluded that the leaflet was misleading."

The centre's practitioner Pamela Pan, whose work permit describes her as a traditional Chinese medical doctor, said the complaint had no bearing on the valuable work that the centre has done for more than two years and the many patients who are happy with their treatment.

She said: "We don't think it is very important whether we say doctor or practitioner, as long as we can help people here.

"Our patients are happy and we are happy to give our help to the patients.

"We have changed our leaflets to say practitioners and we are glad to sort it out."

A spokesman for the centre said the leaflets were due to be updated before the complaint was made.

Updated: 08:53 Thursday, March 07, 2002