Nearly half of doctors unaware of industry Code of Practice
pharmafile | March 28, 2006 | News story | Sales and Marketing |
Nearly half of all doctors are unaware that the UK pharmaceutical industry operates a code of practice, a new survey has revealed.
The news has come as a surprise to much of the industry, which is determined to improve its image among its key customers, doctors, nurses and other NHS professionals.
The survey showed just 52% of doctors were aware of the ABPI Code of Practice, with awareness being particularly low among hospital doctors, only 40% of whom knew of the code's existence.
In total 400 doctors were surveyed, half of them hospital doctors, the other half GPs.
Knowledge of the self-regulatory system was higher among GPs, with 65% of them saying they were aware of it.
The industry has suffered from years of criticism about its practices, with allegations of aggressive marketing tactics and inappropriate relationships with doctors harming its reputation in certain quarters.
On 1 January this year the ABPI launched a newly updated Code of Practice, designed to tighten up the rules and raise standards of conduct – although it says just a few cases of misconduct have obscured the industry's generally high standards.
Results from the survey suggested that while awareness of the code was low among doctors, most of those who knew about it thought it worked well.
Eighty per cent of doctors who were aware of the code believe it is either very or quite effective, against just 4% who said it was not effective at all.
While these figures offer some comfort to the industry, the survey showed that more than a third of those who knew about the survey (38%) did not believe it to be very effective – a sizeable group of doctors to win over.
Vincent Lawton, outgoing President of the ABPI welcomed some of the more positive findings of the survey, but said it confirmed the need to raise awareness of the code.
"The ABPI code is regarded as a world gold standard for self-regulation, and its value is acknowledged by the government's regulatory body, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency. But we need to spread the word widely so that as many as possible know about the code, its provisions and how to make a complaint."
The survey also found that 57% of all those interviewed would like to know more about the code.
"Communication about the code and how to make a complaint is obviously very important, and our aim is to ensure that we spread the message as widely as we can," said Mr. Lawton.
The ABPI has just published an updated booklet about the code specifically for healthcare professionals, which outlines exactly how the self-regulatory system works.
The updated guidance notes are just the first stage in a major awareness campaign to achieve this.
A PR agency, Sante, has been appointed to help develop initiatives for the campaign, which start in April. Meanwhile, the body that operates the Code of Practice, the PMPCA is to appoint its first communications manager to improve the authority's interface with stakeholders.
