is it only specialists who get the pens that work?

OK, I'm outing myself. There's a skeleton in my closet desperate to escape, so here goes.

In 1996, or thereabouts, but before my days at Australian Doctor, I went to the races. Not just any races, but Randwick Races, sitting in a box and with a free lunch. I got to take my non-doctor husband too. No education, no experts, just a couple of GPs and partners, and a few bottles of wine.

Oh, yes, and a few drug reps. In fact, the event was the most exciting drug company junket I recall attending as a GP.

As a mother of two small children who didnt get out much except to work, and had rarely been to the races, I spruced myself up, dropped the kids at my Mum's, and popped off to Randwick, parking of course in a VIP spot paid for by the company.

Unfortunately, even armed with tips from my patients with gambling problems, I came out behind financially, but who cares?

I can't remember the name of the drug being flogged but it was a non-steroidal. And I have no evidence either way as to the outing's influence on my prescribing habits, but suspect it probably did have one. I'm one of those people brought up to return a favour.

Of course, these days are now gone, and today's junkets, at least for GPs, have to be educational, and not of the 'who won the fifth at Randwick?" or "what wine goes best with the rare duck in pomegranite sauce' variety.

The issue of drug companies 'entertaining' doctors has been splashed around in the lay media a lot lately, with 'investigative' journalists working themselves into a lather about oncologists having a night out on Roche at Guillaume at the Bennelong in Sydney. smh, age url

Dont know what the educational component of this posh do was, but since then there's barely been a day without another 'expose' in the media.

In their defence, many doctors argue that entertaining clients is just standard business practice, and they're right. In most industries, wooing clients with a night out at the theatre, or opera, or Guillaume wouldnt turn a hair.

What I'm not so sure about is whether, in the case of drug companies and doctors, the practice itself is right.

I'm not talking pads and pens here or even cheap torches, paper clip holders or biscuit tins. In fact, given the deteriorating quality of drug company pens, if anything, they influence my prescribing in the unintended direction. But more substantial gifts, such as weekends away, are a different matter. As a part-time GP, I'm never offered gifts of this calibre, but am told they still go on, especially for specialists, and especially the group the industry dubs KOLs, or key opinion leaders. (The rationale here, put simply, is that the views of these doctors at the top of the food chain eventually filters down to us bottom feeders)

But when I'm a patient, I want my doctor to decide my treatment on the basis of what they think is the very best for me, not who took them to Tahiti. Whether it's conscious or unconscious influence isnt the point.

Anyway, most specialists I know earn quite enough to buy their own dinner at an establishment of any calibre.