Nurses get extra pay for promoting Drug Use

[Guest guest]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2070273,00.html The Sunday Times March 05, 2006 Jon Ungoed-Thomas and Sarah-Kate Templeton HUNDREDS of nurses on the payroll of the pharmaceutical industry areearning bonuses of £3,500 by identifying NHS patients who can be put on costlynew drug regimes. The nurses are provided free to GPs' surgeries where they are givenaccess to patients' medical records

to check whether they are on the mostup-to-date drugs. Although they are barred from promoting their drugs firms' products,15% of their pay is linked to the number of patients or records they see. Theyare routinely backed up by sales teams. The nurses are described in promotional literature as being able to"influence" new prescriptions for the benefit of their drugs companies. Medicines cost the NHS in England more than £7 billion a year, 80%of which is spent on branded products. GPs say there are no incentives to curbtheir drugs bills, which can vary by up to 50% between similar-sized surgeries. Under the scheme, nurses are employed by

agencies, but paid by thedrugs companies, including GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer and Wyeth. They are sent tosurgeries, where they conduct audits to identify patients with conditions suchas asthma or diabetes who may benefit from a new drug. The nurse advisers are paid a salary of about £25,000 and usually abonus of 10% to 15%. The agencies say they are rewarded for the number ofsurgeries they visit. Innovex, an agency based in Bracknell, Berkshire, told an undercoverreporter that it pays performance bonuses of up to £3,500 to its nurse advisers. A recruitment consultant at Royce also told an undercover reporterthe job was to identify patients with a specific condition. The consultant said:"(It) opens the doors to a

medical representative. They come in and close thebusiness." Matt Griffiths, joint prescribing adviser at the Royal College ofNursing, said he believed any nurses who were given bonuses to promote certainproducts were in breach of the Nursing and Midwifery Council's code of conduct. Innovex, which employs about 200 nurse advisers, would not commenton how it paid bonuses, but said it always complied with the industry code.

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[Guest guest]

When I joined the Royal College of Nursing Australia and read in the principles the blurb about freedom of choice for patients etc etc I was pleased.

 

When I received my first mailout from this "body" included was a heap of info on vaccination, including posters, bumper stickers and brochures, with strong encouragement to distribute widely. I dumped the literature and did not renew.

 

I don't know how much this type of drug pushing goes on here from nurses employed by pharmaceutical companies. Where I work we are always encouraged to reduce medications as far as possible (quantity and dose) and get strongly criticized by management if patients remain on a polypharmacy long term. GPs are often loath to prescribe natural remedies, this impetus has to come from the family.

 

GPs often admit that when a dying patient is no longer able to ingest medication and it is withdrawn that the patient will recover and their condition will improve. So the condition improves sufficiently for them to start taking the medication again - and they die.

 

Jane

 

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Zig Dreschler

antx

Monday, March 06, 2006 9:51 AM

Nurses get extra pay for promoting Drug Use

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2070273,00.html The Sunday Times March 05, 2006 Jon Ungoed-Thomas and Sarah-Kate Templeton HUNDREDS of nurses on the payroll of the pharmaceutical industry areearning bonuses of £3,500 by identifying NHS patients who can be put on costlynew drug regimes. The nurses are provided free to GPs' surgeries where they are givenaccess to patients' medical r ecords to check whether they are on the mostup-to-date drugs. Although they are barred from promoting their drugs firms' products,15% of their pay is linked to the number of patients or records they see. Theyare routinely backed up by sales teams. The nurses are described in promotional literature as being able to"influence" new prescriptions for the benefit of their drugs companies. Medicines cost the NHS in England more than £7 billion a year, 80%of which is spent on branded products. GPs say there are no incentives to curbtheir drugs bills, which can vary by up to 50% between similar-sized surgeries. Under the scheme, nurses are empl oyed by agencies, but paid by thedrugs companies, including GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer and Wyeth. They are sent tosurgeries, where they conduct audits to identify patients with conditions suchas asthma or diabetes who may benefit from a new drug. The nurse advisers are paid a salary of about £25,000 and usually abonus of 10% to 15%. The agencies say they are rewarded for the number ofsurgeries they visit. Innovex, an agency based in Bracknell, Berkshire, told an undercoverreporter that it pays performance bonuses of up to £3,500 to its nurse advisers. A recruitment consultant at Royce also told an undercover reporterthe job was to identify patients with a specific condition. The consultant said:"(It) opens the doors to a medical representative. They come in and close thebusiness." Matt Griffiths, joint prescribing adviser at the Royal College ofNursing, said he believed any nurses who were given bonuses to promote certainproducts were in breach of the Nursing and Midwifery Council's code of conduct. Innovex, which employs about 200 nurse advisers, would not commenton how it paid bonuses, but said it always complied with the industry code.

 

 

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