You Can Have Confidence in Us

You need to be confident that when we give you advice, it is given with your interests at heart rather than any other.

In order to assure this, we comply fully with and actively endorse the New Zealand Medical Council's statement on Doctors and Health Related Commercial Organisations.

The provisions are essentially:

• We must justify our patients’ trust in us and the public’s trust in the profession by acting with integrity at all times.
• We must check information given to us against unsponsored references.
• Rewards given to us must be small.
• Medical decision making must be free of commercial bias.  (we cannot receive an incentive to prescribe or to refer)

Pharmaceutical Representatives

As some of the staff at Hei Hei Health Centre do interact with pharmaceutical representatives, we feel it is a good idea to let you know what they provide:

• Teaching us how to use their medication in line with the published data sheet.
• Advice on legal indications for use of medication, including new medications.
• Sponsorship of educational meetings
• Provision of small gifts - usually pens, post-it notes and small gadgets of small value ($10 or less)
• Occasional donations of equipment to the surgery.
• Occasional support with mutual advertising.
• Provision of teaching support aids for patients (leaflets, models etc)
• Free samples of medication for patients.

Some of these items warrant further explanation:

Medical educational meetings are frequently sponsored by pharmaceutical companies.  These usually involve finger food, generally of a high standard and a lecture by a specialist (often of international stature).  They are usually held in conference venues - typically The George or Chateau on The Park in Christchurch.

Sometimes companies sponsor longer meetings with more comprehensive catering and may provide transport to those events elsewhere in New Zealand (economy class flights)

The speakers at meetings are of course bound by the ethical principles that prevent them from overtly promoting the product of the sponsoring company, so the talks are usually pretty general though not entirely without bias.

The surgery has been given a mini spirometer which we use to provide quick assessments of lung health.  This was gifted by Boehringer-Ingelheim who manufacture Spiriva.  Their intention was to help us to assess whether patients might benefit from their medication and whether or not they meet the strict Special Authority Criteria for its prescription.  The value of this item is about $200.

We have also received a meter for testing uric acid levels.  This is used for determining whether patients are receiving sufficient medication.  This was gifted by the manufacturers of Adenuric, a medication for gout.

Mutual advertising would usually involve a press advertisement advising patients that we have a particular medication in stock.  Hei Hei Health Centre has not participated in this to date.

We do receive a lot of post-its and pens, the odd stapler, pair of scissors or USB hub.

We stock a range of free samples from drug companies.

Overall, we feel that we are better informed and better able to help you as a direct result of our interaction with pharmaceutical company representatives.

We do recognise that this may influence our prescribing practice, but in line with the MCNZ guidance, we always ensure that the information we receive is balanced against other information and of course our own extensive experience.

We are more likely to feel confident prescribing new medications when a representative has visited though of course we will always inform you when our experience is limited.

Gratuities

We are occasionally given personal gifts by specialists to whom we refer patients. 

We actively discourage this as though the sentiment is appreciated, we do not feel we can continue to refer patients independently if there is an expectation of a gratuity.

We do not accept payments for referrals under any circumstances.

It is a bit of a tradition for medical providers who interact with each other to exchange gifts of goodies for the staff to share at Christmas. 

We engage in this as we feel there is no risk of influence given that the relationships are generally only fostered in patient interest and there is no expectation of specific patient interaction.

We do occasionally receive gifts from grateful patients which we are happy to accept.  It truly is the thought that counts and a card to say thank you is appreciated as much as anything else. 

It is an honour and a pleasure enough in itself to care for you.  The greatest gift you can give us is your trust.  We treasure that above all else.

We welcome any comments you might like to make on this or any questions you may have- please use the site contact form.

Credits:

Nexium Capsules:  Rennett Stowe

Gifts image: Steven Depolo