Lax rules remain on medical ‘freebies’
Two years on from promises to shine a light on controversial drug company freebies, the money is still going unreported.
Critics say New Zealand is slipping embarrassingly behind, as health workers in Australia, Britain and the United States now disclose drug company gifts and payments, which research has showed influence treatment decisions.
revealed in October 2015 that Kiwi health workers had accepted more than $300,000 worth of drug company-sponsored travel and gifts. That is likely to be a tiny fraction of the true value, given there is no robust disclosure system.
Among the freebies identified was an $8000 Pfizer-sponsored trip to Barcelona for a Wellington specialist nurse to attend a global haemophilia summit, which included one Pfizer staff member for every four health workers.
At that time, Medicines New Zealand general manager Graeme Jarvis said the organisation had been investigating disclosure methods and expected to have a system in place in 2016.
More than two years on, there is still no compulsory disclosure system. Jarvis said Medicines New Zealand had achieved a ‘‘significant milestone’’, having signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the New Zealand Medical Association to devise a viable system.
Asked how it had taken two years just to sign an MOU, Jarvis said they could not ‘‘just rush into things’’. It was too early to say what any disclosure system would look like, or when it would be in place, he said.
Medical Association chairwoman Kate Baddock could not comment on why the process had taken so long, as she was only elected in May. The system would need to be acceptable and appropriate to both parties, and not too onerous to administer, she said.
She rejected any suggestion that doctors should not accept pharmaceutical payments at all.
‘‘I think that is an uninformed position ... there’s a lot of sharing of information which is funded by pharmaceutical companies.’’
Auckland University professor
"We're looking rather shabby in this regard, that we're not showing any major progress."
Cindy Farquhar, Auckland University professor and transparency advocate
and transparency advocate Cindy Farquhar said New Zealand was slipping behind.
Patients deserved to know where health professionals were receiving gifts from, especially if they were making recommendations about medications and medical devices, she said.
‘‘We’re looking rather shabby in this regard, that we’re not showing any major progress.’’
While New Zealand sat on its hands, Australia increased transparency still further – last year naming doctors who collectively received more than $8.5 million in fees and sponsored travel over a six-month period. The latest figures show nurses, pharmacists and dietitians also receive millions in benefits from drug companies.
Public health workers are already supposed to log freebies in their health board’s gift register, however that is far from transparent. In April, Southern DHB chief executive Chris Fleming apologised to for withholding critical information when asked for a copy of the DHB’s gift register.