MARTYN NAMORONG
An entry in The Crocodile Prize
PNG Chamber of Mines & Petroleum
Award for Essays & Journalism
THERE is a principle in medical ethics called non-maleficence. It is summed up in the Latin maxim, primum non nocere – first do no harm.
It is the ethical responsibility of doctors who have taken the Hippocratic Oath to always first consider the harm they may cause, and to ensure they avoid it.
Primum non nocere does not seem to have been the top of mind in the Borneo Pacific Pharmaceuticals scandal. This should be a major cause of concern for the general population of PNG.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has just revealed that the Papua New Guinea National Doctors’ Association (NDA) published misleading statements about the quality of drugs sourced by Borneo Pharmaceuticals.
What is of major concern is whether medical doctors who are not competent chemists or pharmacologists should make pronouncements on chemical substances used in the treatment of sickness.
In a backflip from their previous stance, the NDA had announced that drugs sourced from North China Pharmaceuticals were legitimate.
But WHO poured cold water over the NDA announcement and the Post-Courier felt it necessary to fry the doctors on its front page.
Unfortunately this case is not unique; not just in PNG but worldwide. As private interests clash with the public good, profit can take precedence over people.
In healthcare, an unhealthy population is good for the sick care business. Ill people help medical suppliers and doctors richer. In fact, what PNG has is not a healthcare system but a sickcare system that has become a cash cow for some.
Healthcare is about creating a healthy population and ensuring healthy people don’t get sick. Sickcare is about building expensive hospitals (and making money from construction and maintenance), supplying expensive drugs and charging expensive medical fees.
It’s a situation made even worse if we can’t trust the medicines supposed to make us better.
It’s a case of people versus profit. The latter may explain why some doctors are willing to behave unethically.