Section 3:   AREAS COVERED

3.1.  
Gifts and Inducements

(i) Gifts to customers should be of benefit to patients or relevant to the recipient's practice and should not include items intended for personal use, such as items of apparel, cosmetics and beauty products. Gifts should be modest in value, i.e. Up to a total value of £6.00. excluding VAT.

(ii) Gifts of an educational nature to an individual healthcare professional are permissible and can be up to a maximum value of £25.00 excluding VAT.

(iii) No gifts or donations shall be offered or given as an inducement to prescribe, supply, administer or buy a dressing.

(iv) Schemes which enable customers, healthcare professionals and their employees to obtain personal benefit and schemes which provide sums of money to an organisation in which an individual can obtain personal benefit are not acceptable.

3.2.  
Business Courtesies
Business courtesies include meals, social events, travel, and living expenses. These courtesies, when provided to a customer, should be modest in amount and be related to a legitimate purpose (e.g. explanation or demonstration of a member's products, service capabilities, research work, or training.). These should not exceed a level normally associated with the customer's lifestyle. Persons not involved in the use of product, e.g. spouses or partners, should be excluded from business courtesies.

3.3.
Representatives
Companies are responsible for the activities of their representatives who will be given adequate training and have sufficient technical knowledge to enable them to provide full and accurate information about the dressings they promote.

For the purposes of this Code of Practice, any contract sales / marketing company and their employees used by a signatory to the Code shall be considered to be representatives of that company and as such be subject to the requirements of the Code. The signatory employing the contract sales company shall be responsible for any breaches of the Code made by them whilst representing the signatory and their products and services and be subject to the complaints procedure.

Representatives must:

(i) At all times maintain a high standard of ethical conduct in the discharge of their duties and must comply with all relevant requirements of The Code.

(ii) Not make claims or comparisons with any product which are in any way inaccurate, misleading, disparaging, in poor taste or which discredit another company or the surgical dressings industry.

(iii) Ensure that the frequency, manner, timing and duration of their calls on customers do not cause inconvenience.

(iv) Ensure that the wishes of individuals on whom representatives call and the arrangements in force at any particular establishment are strictly observed.

3.4.  
Advertising and Promotional Materials
Advertising and promotional material covers all media, including electronically published materials but specifically excludes "broadcast" of independent scientific debate. Independent scientific debate means non-company generated or sponsored data. All published company generated or sponsored data must be acknowledged, e.g. by the inclusion of a company name or logo.

Advertising and promotional material must at all times be legal, accurate, balanced, fair objective and unambiguous and shall not mislead or contain any exaggerated claims either direct or implied and shall not misrepresent competitors’ products by the inaccurate or inappropriate use of data. Any product claim must be referenced and able to be supported by valid written evidence, which is either in the public domain, (e.g. through publication in a legitimate professional health or medical journal) or can be provided within twenty eight working days, upon request by either a member, a non-member or a health care professional. When the information cannot be provided within twenty eight working days, the parties must agree a timescale for the information to be provided. (Data on file is an acceptable source.) Failure to agree a time scale for the provision of information shall constitute grounds for a complaint.

Advertising and promotional material shall not contain recommendation of a product by scientists or health professionals without their prior consent.

Advertising and promotional material which is unfair, misleading, disparaging or denigrating of a competitor's products or services would be considered as a breach of The Code. Comparative advertising should be supported either by clinical data taking into account the statistical significance of this data or by validated objective technical data.

3.5.  
Promotions and Competitions
No company shall be involved in promotional schemes or competitions which are misleading or which may bring the industry into disrepute. Where a competition involves a particular product, the questions and answers should test the skill and experience of the intended recipients.

Promotional materials are considered in the same way as advertising and promotional literature and their content should be governed by section 3.4. of The Code.

Where promotional samples are provided for clinical use in order that potential users may familiarize themselves with the product in accordance with 3.10., the sample provided must be a version of the product itself and meet the appropriate regulations which would be the same as those applying to the marketed product.

Competition prizes given directly by the company to the winner of a competition should relate to product and/or the recipient's work discipline. The value should be relative to the level of difficulty involved and of value no greater than £400. They should be educational in nature and relevant to the use of the product.

3.6.  
Product Information Claims
Where a dressing is a medical device, it is expected that claims made are supported in the documentation that shows conformity to the Essential Requirements of the Medical Devices Regulations S.I. 1994 No. 3017. (Medicinal products are excluded from the scope of this Code.)

Information, claims and comparisons for all products must be accurate, balanced, fair, objective and unambiguous. They must not mislead either directly or by implication. Any information, claim or comparison must be capable of substantiation.

In vitro data must be labelled as such. Extrapolation into a clinical environment must be accompanied by sufficient evidence to demonstrate its clinical relevance.

Hanging Comparisons whereby a dressing is described as being better or stronger or suchlike without stating that to which the dressing is compared must not be made.

3.7.  
Education and Training
Companies have a responsibility, where relevant, to make available to customers, instruction, education and training to explain the safe and effective use of their products.

If companies reimburse customers for travel, living and meal expenses when participating in such instruction, education or training, such reimbursement should be modest in amount and related to the purpose. Hospitality and travel must be secondary in purpose and not greater in value than the recipients would expect, if they were paying for themselves.
N.B. Education via attendance at conferences is dealt with in 3.8.

3.8.  
Conferences, Exhibitions and Seminars
Subsidies to underwrite the cost of conferences, exhibitions and seminars should be provided only to the organizer group which may in turn use the money to reduce the costs of the event. Payment to defray the costs of an event should not be provided by the company directly to the attendees.

Companies may underwrite the costs of social events at a conference, exhibition or seminar. However, the social aspect should be of modest value, in proportion to the scale of the event and secondary to the educational purpose of the event.

Scholarships or other special funds may be provided by companies for the purpose of allowing appropriately qualified individuals to attend educational conferences and seminars. The cost of attending such events must be approved by the institution employing the individual and no funds shall be paid directly to that individual.

3.9.  
Removal of Competitors' Products
'Stock swaps' are not permitted unless they are part of a clinical trial with an approved protocol in an agreed timescale.

3.10.  
Product Trials and Samples
Where product is being evaluated in an official trial which is to an agreed protocol, samples must only be supplied in accordance with that protocol.

Samples left with customers should be sufficient to allow practitioners to become familiar with the product or to conduct a simple product evaluation, up to a maximum of 10 samples.

3.11.  
Scientific Debate and Conference Papers
Brochures, leaflets and posters, handed out or made available by representatives of a company at conferences are, for the purposes of this Code, regarded as advertising and promotional materials (see section 3.4.). A scientific paper presented at a conference and published in the official conference proceedings is regarded as scientific debate and outside the scope of this Code of Practice.

It should be clearly noted in conference proceedings and conference handouts that a speaker or the work presented by a speaker has been supported by a company. For the purposes of this Code such material should be regarded as promotional literature and advertising.

For a scientific paper or data presented at a conference or meetings that are independent of company sponsorship or support and are published in the official conference proceedings, these shall be considered as scientific debate and outside the scope of this Code.

A company A may request of company B copies of papers to be presented at conferences or meetings sponsored or supported by company B if it believes that the papers may be critical of company A's products. Company A may then request the opportunity to respond at the conference or meeting. The opportunity to respond should not unduly be withheld by company B.

3.12.  
Electronic Equipment
Electronic equipment is not exempt from the Code of Practice. Its use must comply with the context of the clause(s) relating to its purpose. Electronic equipment provided to a healthcare professional must not be capable of adaptation for personal use. It must not exceed the value limit set for gifts.

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