DOCTORS who fear their reputations will be damaged when pharmaceutical companies are forced to reveal how much they spend on overseas trips for individual medicos will be able to hide their identities.
And drug companies will cease reporting on the $80 million a year they spend on wining a dining doctors at five star hotels and restaurants to spruik their products, under a setback for transparency.
The doctor secrecy provision in the new pharmaceutical company Code of Conduct undermines the whole point of improved transparency, says Greens health spokesman Senator Richard Di Natale.
It means doctors will be able to keep secret from patients their ties to the companies who make the medicines they prescribe perpetuating concerns about potential conflicts of interest.
“The voluntary nature of disclosure makes the code next to meaningless. It’s like making a breathalyser voluntary for drink drivers,” he said.
“If doctors are worried about how a patient feels (about them taking money from drug companies) that tells you all you need to know about whether it is acceptable to take the money,” the former medico said.
The peak pharmaceutical organisation Medicines Australia yesterday submitted a new Code of Conduct for its members for approval by the consumer watchdog the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
For the first time ever it will require pharmaceutical companies to collect information on how much they spend sending individual doctors to overseas medical conferences, what they pay them in consultancy and speaking fees and in educational grants.
Pharmaceutical company insiders have revealed some top doctors are being paid tens of thousands of dollars a year in secret drug company fees.
The world’s second largest drug company GlaxoSmithKline revealed it spent $2.5 million on overseas trips, speaking fees and donations to Australian doctors in 2012 and it says it is moving to phase out these payments.
However the new rules give doctors concerned about their reputation a get out clause.
“If a healthcare professional does not agree to the information being disclosed with their name, the expenditure will be reported in aggregate with the number of healthcare professionals it relates to,” the code says.
Medicines Australia chief Dr Brendan Shaw says “certainly the industry wants to be transparent the members unanimously voted for it”.
However, he says there are certain privacy issues the organisation has to work through and that “best practice requires we get the permission of the doctor”.
“This is a partnership and we want to bring doctors along on the journey”, he said.
Senator Di Natale said the Greens were so disappointed in the new Code of Conduct they were considering reintroducing a bill that would make it a legal requirement for drug companies to report the payments they make to individual doctors.
For years drug companies have been reporting on the $70-$80 million a year they spend on around 360,000 educational events for doctors.
Many of these are held at five star hotels or top restaurants and drug companies use them to spruik their medicines.
But under the new code of conduct this reporting will come to an end. Instead, drug companies will be able to spend up to $120 per person per event without reporting it.
If the entertainment costs more than $120 per head it will amount to a breach of the Code of Conduct and be investigated.
Dr Shaw defended the interactions between drug companies and the doctors who prescribe their drugs as “essential for ensuring that patients have the best care”.
“ They ensure healthcare professionals have up to date and comprehensive information about medical developments.,” he said.
The Australian Medical Association has been worried that doctors reputations could be compromised by publicity about the size of the income they receive from pharmaceutical companies.
Source: Courier Mail