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I don't understand how professionals, like Doctors in this instance, simply accept hospitality, gifts and generous foreign travel like this. I work in the Automotive industry and we are all made very aware of the risks involved in accepting gifts and hospitality and the ultimate expectations of the giver.
Is this happening because the General Medical Council have no guidelines or rules on this stuff?
Or are Doctors generally more stupid/greedy than 'we' imagine them to be?
Just because they are Doctors or in a profession with high regards does not mean they cannot be corrupted ...
People are generally greedy. Not all but most are. Not stupid but greedy. Very greedy. Very. 🤔
That would be very much against policy where I work these days. Any entertainment, gifts etc over $100 from a supplier has to be pre-approved. Even somebody else paying for your hotel when on a conference is not allowed.
Even in the early 2000s, it would have been seen as "a bit dodgy".
"experts" sent a, no doubt flattering, invite to a gathering of experts all expenses paid. While there told about advances in their field.
On return "monitored" by company that, probably, didn't overtly advertise their involvement.
Bigger question is how did pharma Access the prescribing records?
I do consultancy for a medical company and recently they've become very conscious over things like hospitality - gifts are a no no - with maximums they can claim for meals etc but they are still flown all over the world for conferences. Surgeons are known to double bill their time, or bill for an event they didn't attend, seen as white collar victim-less fraud I guess. Medical companies can get into hot water with regulators for how they promote products these days but only 10-20 years ago it was more of a free for all.
We should never put Doctors and Nurses on some kind of moral pedestal, they're just normal human beings after-all.
This sort of thing still goes on now, it's carefully packaged to avoid looking like a jolly/bung or whatever.
For example, my Wife is a Specialist Nurse, but has zero buying authority, certainly not as NHS trust level. She uses the products from a pool of products available to her and is expected to use her skill and experience to choose which one.
The Medical Companies are so keen to speak to her and her colleagues that they have to pre-book the use of a weekly lunch break slot and the rules, whilst unwritten are simple - they bring lunch, a nice lunch (Sandwiches and treats from M&S, Waitrose nothing too out of the norm) and in return they get to 'educate' them about the best use of the products they sell in the pool of products they can access. (some of the dressing they can use are both incredibly fancy and incredibly expensive, I was amazed what they put in some of them).
That's just the weekly stuff, She's off to Denmark in a few weeks for a Factory Tour, there's a whole department in this company devoted to the logistics of getting Medics to and from various places - Night in a hotel in the Airport so she doesn't have to get up too early to fly? Yeah no problem, get you a taxi from your house if you want.
It's the conferences that seem to be the big ticket events - they hold them all over the place, globally and they cost a fortune. Big Gala dinners as grand as I ever saw pre-crash when I worked in the cockiest Bank in the world. They cost about £1k a ticket, sometimes more, plus travel and accom. The NHS isn't going to pay for that, so they ask the Medical Cos to sponsor them.
Possibly the strangest thing is that there's almost never a choice of product to use for a specific thing - it's this for that, and that for that - there's a whole lot of over-lap and zero change my Wife would choose the 'wrong' thing just to please the rep who sent her to Denmark, but they're happy to do it anyway.
Having lunch or a meal with a Supplier is something I could do - not a lot of money inviolved there and it's seen as normal.
Factory Tour/Visit - I can do but at my companies expense. No bung or free flights or accomodation are allowed. Some food and drink could be purchased by the Supplier - see above.
If I was found to have accepted anything else you've mentioned it would/could destroy my career
After an evening drinking in a Karaoke bar on a sourcing trip, I got asked to choose a girl to take back to my hotel when visiting a frame factory.
Factory were confused when I declined, saying it was no problem and they would pay.
Girl was very upset too.
Ran back to hotel quite fast.