Bribery rampant in health services
JAKARTA (JP): Collusion between practitioners and drug producers is a serious problem in the health services, a health ministry official said yesterday.
Iwan Darmansjah, the ministry's chairman of drug safety and efficacy, said many drug producers are luring doctors with profits from their prescription drug sales.
These drug producers go as far as offering a certain percentage of their profits from the sale of drugs that the doctor has prescribed.
According to Iwan, such bribery practices are well-known to the public.
"It will become even more serious if the patient is given the wrong drugs simply because the doctor is after a commission," Iwan, who is also head of the University of Indonesia's Clinical Trial Center, said.
Iwan was addressing a four-day workshop titled Women's Health and Consumers' Protection which opened on Monday and is organized by the Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI). It is being attended by participants from 15 provinces.
Chairman of the Indonesian Medical Association (IDI) Azrul Azwar stressed that taking bribes is against the physician's professional code of ethics.
"I agree with the idea that the bribery practices involving medical practitioners and drug companies should be stopped," Azrul told The Jakarta Post yesterday.
However, he said he believes only a few doctors collude with drug producers. "Most of the corrupt doctors are those who are very popular, have lots of patients," Azrul said.
According to IDI's data, there are about 34,000 medical doctors throughout Indonesia.
Azrul rejected the notion that such bribery disadvantages patients.
"Medically, bribery practices won't disadvantage patients because doctors don't speculate with their patients' conditions," Azrul said. "Doctors prescribe medicines produced by certain companies," he said.
Besides, medicines, which are offered by drug companies, are patent drugs. "Doctors won't prescribe them unless they are really necessary," Azrul said.
Yesterday, Iwan also warned people about misleading drug advertisements in the mass media because the medical benefits of the drugs are not as great as claimed.
According to Iwan, most drugs advertised on television, which can be bought without a doctor's prescription, have never been clinically tested for their quality.
As an example, he cited the advertisement of a drug claimed to be capable of helping women who suffered from menstrual pain.
A YLKI survey on 186 respondents published last month showed that 73.5 percent of the consumers said that TV ads helped them choose medicines.
Furthermore, 52.9 percent of consumers were interested in drug advertisements, while 81 percent agreed that the advertisements are useful to consumers.
The survey also revealed that only 34.5 percent of consumers considered drug advertisements as credible, while 44.3 percent considered drug advertisements too bombastic. (31)