Bad Medicine: Nofreelunch.

Abstract

I am a nobody. A bang average medical student who found a home working in the inner city of Glasgow. I also felt like a square peg in a round hole but I tried hard to fit in with my chosen profession. Twenty years ago drug reps were omnipresent in general practice, providing lunch and restaurant nights out, paying for Christmas parties, and offering international trips and endless freebies. I accepted the status quo because it was all I knew, for the hospitals had been just the same. Doctors were entitled. And when I became the local prescribing lead this largess escalated with offers of a lot more hospitality and highly paid ‘teaching’ opportunities. In the late nineties during the statin wars, a rep cupped my ear and simply …