Healthy Skepticism Library item: 20028

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: Magazine

Carter W
Christmas drug rep rush
New Zealand GP 1998 Dec 16

Full text:

In one corner of our surgery waiting room we have a small desk where patients can fill in insurance or other forms in relative comfort, but in the first week of December each year, this desk is turned over for the use of pharmaceutical representatives.

Throughout the year, every morning from 10:30 to 11am, we do not make any patient bookings, and the five doctors in the practice, along with the practice manager and any other assorted staff members who can be spared, gather in the staffroom for morning tea.

Almost invariably we are joined by a pharmaceutical company representative, who is encouraged to bring along some suitable edibles.

The ideal situation does not always eventuate, because usually one or more doctors are running late, or some inconsiderate patient wanders in with a mangled appendage or chest pain, but even so, it makes a good break after three hours’ work, and engenders social interaction and the exchange of ideas amongst the staff. Sometimes we actually learn something about a new pharmaceutical product from the rep.

We have been told by the reps that they actually look forward to visiting our surgery, because we treat them like human beings and they enjoy our banter and normally relaxed break. As the years roll by, we get to know some of the reps who return month after month as friends.

But in the first week of December, all that changes. The AMPA (Australian Manufacturers Association) has established a system whereby no appointments to see general practitioners for the following year can be made before December 1.

Special calendars are circulated to all surgeries to be filled in for appointments, and (in theory at least) reps should not be seen unless they have an appointment on this calender.

When the receptionist opens the surgery door at 7:30 am on the set day, the first rep is waiting to pounce, and because ours is a relatively popular surgery, others pour in over the next few hours to make their appointments. Sometimes there is a queue of two or three reps waiting to get at the desk where we keep that vital calendar.

Some surgeries allow the reps to book up all their appointments for a year in advance, but we insist that they attend for one visit before making the next. Nevertheless, by the end of the week, at least one-third of all the appointments for the next year have been taken.

Companies now have product reps who promote just one product of that company, rather than their full range, so there are over 80 different reps’ names in the book by the end of the week.

Some try to be sneaky and, by arrangement with each other and the judicious use of mobile phones, the rep for one product in a company will try to make the appointments for two or three other reps in the same company but with different products. The competition for good sessions is ferocious, as some days there are fewer doctors working in the morning than others, and other days (eg, Monday) are known to be more chaotic and thus less likely to have a full complement of doctors able to make it for morning tea in the staff room.

Meanwhile, we languish over packet biscuits at morning tea, as all the reps are too busy making appointments to actually visit any doctors. The usual fruit and cheese platters, rich chocolate cakes or savoury selections that usually tempt us to leave our patients as quickly as possible at 10:30 are missing.

Our moods are down as much as the quality of food because a new fresh face normally adds life to the discussion. We have all become too familiar with each other to entertain ourselves, and miss the enjoyment of torturing a rep with all the nasty side-effects we can recall about his or her product, or detailing in gory detail the way in which we dealt with a particularly juicy abscess earlier that morning.

Next week should be back to normal, with Christmas cheer in the air, and the occasional bottle of wine or Scotch, as well as the better-than-average inscribed pens or diaries being presented along with morning tea by those reps who soldier on into the holiday period.

To all, enjoy your Christmas and good health into the New Year.