From: A Free Supper and the Surgeons Are Anyone's

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http://campaignfortruth.com/Eclub/191203/CTM%20-%20freelunches.htm

 

The Daily Telegraph, 21st November, 2003

 

 

A Free Supper and the Surgeons Are Anyone's

Trust me …I'm a junior doctor

by Max Pemberton

 

At this week's surgical meeting, we were subjected to a 15-minute barrage of

cleverly altered statistics by an obsequious drug rep, all white teeth, fake tan

and hair gel. The new drug he was peddling was twice as expensive as the current

one and, when you look closely at the evidence, can't even be proved to be as

effective. The research is funded by the drug company. Hardly objective. It is

somewhat suspicious, too, that this new drug has arrived just as the patent's

run out on the company's current big earner. But no one seemed to feel this

worthy of note. The company is also paying for my consultant and some of the

other surgeons to have dinner at a swanky restaurant where minor celebrities

hang out. If we had wanted to work in an area where we got free stuff, we should

have got a job in PR. Ultimately, it's taxpayers' money we're spending and if

the drug companies have so much cash to flash, why not subsidise medicines for

the poorer companies? I decided to skip the free

sandwiches.

 

We admitted Miss Miller a few days ago with recurrent stomach pains, but decided

to wait and see if the pains receded on their own, which they did.

 

" I think it's down to my new homoeopath, " says Miss Miller during the ward

round, just before we discharge her. Several of the assembled doctors suppress

chuckles, but Mr Butterworth guffaws in her face. " He says it's because of all

the wheat we eat these days, " she says, anxious to explain. " Our bodies aren't

designed for it. But he's given me a new supplement, which I've been taking

since I've been in here, and it's worked wonders. "

 

As far as Miss Miller is concerned she came in with stomach pains, we didn't do

anything for her, but she started taking her homeopathic medicine and she got

better. Who am I to say it wasn't down to homoeopathy? Mr Butterworth isn't

convinced: " New-age rubbish. No, these things just get better on their own,

given time. Homoeopathy. Huh! No reliable evidence that it works at all. " The

other surgeons smile in agreement and walk off, shaking their heads.

 

" I think it works, " whispers Miss Miller to me.

 

" Well if it makes you feel better, there's no harm in it, " I reply, and run to

catch them up.

 

I'm just in time to catch the instructions for the next patient and Mr

Butterworth, apparently no longer concerned about reliable evidence, prescribes

the new drug we learnt about at lunch time.

 

The ward round ends and, as I fill out the blood forms for the next day, Miss

Miller appears. " I bought you and the nurses these, " she says, producing a box

of biscuits. I thank her, and having refused the drug rep's sandwiches, I polish

off the Jammy Dodgers before you can say " Holland and Barrett " .

 

I'd like to think I prescribe medicines sensibly and not because someone has

paid for my lunch. I'd like to think I wouldn't allow myself to be bought by a

transnational company on the promise of supper at Dale Winton's favourite

restaurant. But I'm still only a junior doctor, so we'll have to wait and see.

The Daily Telegraph, 21st November, 2003

 

 

 

 

 

 

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