Tuesday 10 February 2009

Grunt Humour, drug research and NHS staff dedication

As there has been a lot of serious things written in the last few days we at ND Central thought we would share a light hearted moment with you out there in the bloggosphere. One of the Team was reading the 70 or so letters we receive per partner per day at ND Central and noted in their correspondence a letter from a drug company promoting a product.

We at ND Central do not usually see drug reps so reading these letters is a way of learning about new products that if you are not interested in the product is very quick and easy to throw away and move onto something else in contrast to drug reps.

The member who read this letter highlighted a paragraph that amused them and passed it onto the admin team who have a good grunt sense of humour. The paragraphs that amused this team member is reproduced below minus the name of the drug:

“ . . . is licensed for the treatment of erectile dysfunction and is the only PDE5i that can deliver efficacy all day, every day allowing suitable patients to respond any time they are sexually stimulated.”

(efficacy for the non medical reader is the power or capacity to produce effects.)

A further quote from this letter says that the drug is:

“. . . suitable for (those) who anticipate frequent sex (i.e. more than once a week) . . "

The effect on the staff at ND Central was amazing. Within minutes the building was alive with people volunteering (5 in less than 10 minutes) to do research into whether this drug did as it said on the tin for no cost to the NHS none of whom were the intended direct user of the drug.

We cannot recall there ever being so much interest in a new drug product among our staff and so much enthusiasm to volunteer for research. This indeed is a reflection of the selflessness of those who work in General Practice and a measure of their desire to increase our knowledge about medicine.

Praise be to the Party and their NICE attitude towards drugs. Is there a Ph.D. in this or might that be too much hard work? (Could not reproduce all the other comments regarding this there were too many and many were too rude.)

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