Healthy Skepticism Library item: 13541

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Publication type: news

Dart J.
Doctors beg drug firms to pay for staff
The Sydney Morning Herald 2008 Apr 17
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/doctors-beg-drug-firms-to-pay-for-staff/2008/04/17/1208025365679.html

Full text:

Staffing shortfalls are so acute at Sydney’s Liverpool Hospital that senior doctors have been lobbying pharmaceutical companies for funds to privately recruit workers, a public inquiry into NSW hospitals has heard.

The issue again raises questions of the independence of the medical profession after it was revealed last month that pharmaceutical companies had paid $30 million for doctors and nurses to attend educational events.

Suzanne Hodgkinson, a senior neurologist at the hospital, told the inquiry that she approached a pharmaceutical company for $20,000 to pay for an administrative assistant.

She said morale among staff had dropped in recent years due to their increased workload, with senior doctors often having to do more menial tasks traditionally assigned to administrative staff.

“I considered I had insufficient clerical support and, so as to try and remedy that, I approached a company to help me with that on a temporary, part-time basis,” she said.

Although Dr Hodgkinson wouldn’t reveal which company had paid the money, she said the practice was widespread.

“This was just a very discreet example, so I have other examples as well. Quite a few senior doctors do try to raise money to help with the provision of services”.

Dr Hodgkinson said the measures were a response to chronically low levels of staff at the hospital.

Liverpool Hospital’s emergency department director Richard Cracknell said presentations at the hospital had increased by 30 per cent in the past three years, with no corresponding rise in staff levels.