PB IDI: Ethics And Pharmacy Rules Close Doctor's Gratification Gap
JAKARTA - Chairman of the Executive Board of the Indonesian Doctors Association (PB IDI) Adib Khumaidi said the rules for medical ethics and internal pharmaceutical professions closed the gap in gratification for doctors to seek additional income through the sale and marketing of health products to patients.
"In ancient times, a doctor wanted a seminar out of town to be financed by a pharmaceutical company, and the financed one was a doctor and his family. However, now it can no longer be done," said Adib Khumaidi as quoted by ANTARA, Thursday, May 25.
According to Adib, the incident was classified as gratification for the medical profession through the influence of sales and marketing exposure or sales and marketing costs.
"The incident was revealed by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) in the 2016 period," he said.
The KPK report revealed that there were allegations of a flow of funds of around Rp800 billion from pharmaceutical companies to a number of doctors as gratuities for the sale of health products to patients.
"On this basis, policies emerged from the KPK and IDI, one of which was the process of preventing gratification measures through the formation of a Gratification Monitoring Unit (UPG)," he said.
Efforts to prevent gratuities among doctors have also been pursued by enforcing medical ethics, internal regulations in the pharmaceutical profession in the form of the International Pharmaceutical Manufacturer Group (IPMG), as well as electronic catalogs of drug prices and medical devices as market price standardization.
"For example, as an orthopedic doctor, I can no longer carry my own tools and rent out my tools to the hospital, because there are rules," he said.
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Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said that gratification to doctors was one of the causes of the increase in drug prices in Indonesia by 200 percent.
"Why are medicines still expensive? Because there are sales and marketing expansions. Why are shipping and marketing operations expensive? Because there are some activities that need to be resolved," he said.