What's Good For Goose Not Allowed For Gander?

Substantial incentives to prescribing physicians by pharmaceutical companies and their representatives, to "encourage" doctors to prescribe their products are clearly no longer acceptable (if ever they had been). And codes of practice implemented by the pharmaceutical industry itself (both at national and international levels) have made it absolutely clear that anything but the smallest gift or modest, education-orientated hospitality is not allowed.

It is interesting, therefore, that in the UK at least, Family Health Service Authorities are permitted to offer significant financial incentives to influence doctors' prescribing with impunity.

The Hillingdon FHSA in Middlesex, for example, has just issued a circular to participating practices to "prescribe cost effectively," and has set targets for the fiscal year 1994/95 on generic prescribing. It says that the overall aim is to increase the generic prescribing of every practice by not less than 5% of the existing levels, and where generic prescribing is significantly above the FHSA average, the practices will be expected to maintain the status quo. A minimum level of 50% has already been set for all practices, it notes.