Table 1 Impact of the new policy on the interactions between general practitioners and pharmaceutical sales representatives (PSRs).
| Preintervention | Postintervention (3 months) | Postintervention (9 months) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Doctor visits with PSRs in 1 month | |||
| PSR visits booked in doctors' diaries | 16 | 0 | 0 |
| Reported corridor visits | 12 | 2 | 0 |
| No. of promotional items (mean/room) at the Inala Health Centre General Practice | |||
| Doctors rooms (n = 5) | 148 (29.6) | 112 (22.4) | 120 (24) |
| Total administration area (n = 2) | 38 (19) | 27 (13.5) | 26 (13) |
| Total nursing area (n = 7) | 25 (8.3) | 14 (2) | 37 (5.3) |
| Total other areas (n = 5) | 28 (5.6) | 10 (2) | 6 (1.2) |
| Total | 239 (12.6) | 163 (8.6)* | 189 (10.0)† |
| Sample cupboard items (tablets/capsules/tubes/bottles) | 4660 | 1902 | 1389 |
| Prescribing patterns (based on 1 week of practice prescribing data at each time period) | |||
| Patient encounters | 547 | 504 | 530 |
| Number of prescriptions (total) | 542 | 464 | 285 |
| Prescriptions per patient encounter | 0.99 | 0.92 | 0.54 |
| Generic prescriptions (% of total prescriptions) | 4 | 8.6‡ | 8.1§ |
*3‐month postintervention audit compared with preintervention: −76 items (−4.0 items/room; 95% CI −6.61 to −1.39); Kruskal–Wallis H test = 14.7, df = 8, p = 0.066.
†9‐month postintervention audit compared with preintervention: −50 items (−2.63 items/room; 95% CI −5.86 to 0.60); Kruskal–Wallis H test = 13.9, df = 11, p = 0.24.
‡3‐month postintervention audit compared with preintervention: odds ratio 2.28 (95% CI 1.31 to 3.86); χ2 test = 8.99, df = 1, p = 0.0027.
§9‐month postintervention audit compared with preintervention: odds ratio 2.07 (95% CI 1.13 to 3.82); χ2 test = 5.84, df = 1, p = 0.016.