Doctors’ morale: ‘Remember your oath, treat your patients right’

Prof. Edhi advises doctors to not accept incentives at the cost of their patients’ health.

KARACHI:

“Every human being, regardless of their caste or ethnicity, has the right to proper healthcare,” stressed Prof. Adeeb Rizvi, during a session on medical ethics at the golden jubilee celebrations of the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD).

The third and final day concluded with a two-part presentation on ethical issues being faced in medical practice today. Prof. Idrees Edhi, who is the president of the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA), conducted a session on the ethics of pharmaceutical industry’s relations with physicians while Prof. Anwer Naqvi presented his perspectives on ethics of organ transplants in Pakistan.

‘No free lunch’ pledge

Prof. Edhi said that physicians’ must honour their Hippocratic Oath while treating their patients. “Physicians have power over their patients as they have more knowledge - the pharmaceutical industry takes advantage of this relationship, giving incentives to physicians to endorse their drugs.” Relating his own experience as an eye specialist, he said, “If I want, I can prescribe an expensive drug to treat an eye infection even though there is a cheaper generic form of the drug available in the market.”

He said that in the US there were regulations requiring pharmaceutical companies to disclose all gifts given to doctors over the amount of $50. In Pakistan, however, physicians were treated to air fare, holidays, Umra and dowry for weddings by the pharmaceutical companies under the guise of academic activities. He said that, “Patients are eventually funding these conferences - even the one we are in today.” Prof. Edhi advised physicians and pharmaceutical companies to take the lead in fixing these issues before the government’s intervention. Profits must not be the cause of patients’ suffering. “Let us promise that we won’t accept these incentives from pharmaceutical companies - No more free lunches,” he said.

Tourism transplants decline in Pakistan

“The western code of ethics can’t be applied in patriarchal societies as there are different cultural and family values. These issues become all the more vital when someone is thinking about giving or receiving a transplant,” said Prof. Anwer Naqvi, during his talk on the ethics of transplant surgeries. The number of kidney transplants, from 2001 to 2006, increased due to a phenomenon called tourism transplants as people travelled to Pakistan to receive kidney transplants at cheaper prices. The kidneys were purchased from poor people who were forced to sell these organs because of their financial circumstances.

Most of the exploited were poor, illiterate and were stuck in bonded labour as they had to pay their debts owed by their forefathers, he alleged.

Prof. Naqvi said that donors were reluctant to donate their organs as they didn’t trust medical professionals anymore.

The Supreme Court took action and passed a transplant ordinance in 2007 which stated that only immediate family members could donate organs without any financial incentives or conflicts of interest.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 26^th, 2013.