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And when he finally did, he was accompanied by a good looking young man with a stylish hair cut and wearing a nicely tailored dark suit. He was introduced by the doctor by name. He was identified as being from a pharmaceutical company, and it was indicated it might be useful in some vague way for him to listen in on a conversation with a patient, specifically me. The doctor asked if I had any objection, although the doctor insisted that the stranger would leave during the actual examination. As I had not encountered such a proposal in the many times I have been visiting doctors' offices, I was more than a little stunned. But overcoming my generally easy nature, I mumbled something about most people not much liking pharmaceutical companies. The doctor quickly got the message and turned to the drug salesman and suggested he should leave. At that point, I recovered my composure and stated with some clarity and increased vigor that I did not want the salesman to stay, and that I had very strong negative opinions of drug companies, which I would have elaborated on if given the chance. By then the drug salesman had slipped out and with the door closed, the doctor said it was okay for me to react that way, that he was not trying to cause me undue difficulty, and he understood why I said what I did. This by way of apology, which he continued to repeat a few more times during and after the examination. While the doctor exonerated me for kicking out the advance man, I have not exonerated the doctor for the unprofessional, even sleazy, way he and his drug company pal tried to invade my privacy. And the more I ponder that very brief but highly unusual encounter the angrier I get. This drug salesman virus must be catching, because the next time I visited a different doctor's office, I had to wait to check in with the receptionist because I was preceded by a young man with an even better tailored suit and more stylish hair cut holding a laptop computer. He definitely was from a drug company because he proudly wore a name-tag on his lapel. When he finished his conversation with the receptionist, it was my turn to sign in. Meanwhile, he went out to his car, and soon returned with an armload of free drug samples, plus some nifty ball point pens for the workers in the doctor's office. He was then preparing to wait to see the doctor in the office down the corridor. At least this encounter with the salesman took place in the public waiting area, rather than in an examining room. But, it makes you wonder. With drug salesmen given license to patrol the offices and halls of physicians' practices, should we be more skeptical of what kinds of medications are prescribed for us and who is making those judgments, the doctors or the drug companies and their advance men? |
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