A small number of Irish doctors were found to have solicited payment from pharmaceutical company medical representatives in recent years, according to a submission to the Medical Council Ethics Guide review obtained by IMN.
The Council is in the process of reviewing the section of the Seventh Guide to Professional Conduct and Ethics for Registered Medical Practitioners dealing with the relationship of doctors with the pharmaceutical industry.
In its submission to the Council, the Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association (IPHA) states that “from time to time” the Association has come across incidents of healthcare professionals seeking payments for access.
“Such practices raise a number of important questions, not least of which is, the compatibility of such a demand with the Advertising Regulations which govern the promotion of medicines in Ireland, the IPHA Code of Practice and perhaps also, the Medical Council’s own Guidelines,” the submission states.
In its submission to the Medical Council, IPHA reiterates guidelines which say that, “a person qualified to prescribe or supply medicinal products shall not solicit or accept any gift, pecuniary advantage, benefit in kind, hospitality, sponsorship or any other inducement where the provision of such is prohibited.”
A spokesperson for IPHA told IMN that the Association does not condone the actions of doctors who seek payment for access, as this is prohibited under their regulations.
However, the spokesperson also emphasised that a small number of individual doctors were involved and that the matter amounted to a small number of isolated incidents.
“In all cases, healthcare professionals want to uphold the highest ethical standards,” the spokesperson said.
IPHA recently introduced a revised Code of Marketing Practice for the Pharmaceutical Industry, which was effective from January 1, 2012.
The Medical Council was due to conduct a survey of doctors’ attitudes towards relationships between the pharmaceutical industry and the medical profession in late December 2011 or early this year as part of the review of the Ethics Guide.
The current edition of the Guide tells doctors that “your choice of therapy for your patient should always be made in the patient’s best interests”.
The Guide also states that the payment of “reasonable fees” to doctors is acceptable if they provide services to commercial enterprises.
Image courtesy of Images_Of_Money, Creative Commons
