Monda Fleming asks for help in dealing with the increased costs to her
institution if they stop handing out formula company advertising materials.
The company is threatening to stop supplying bottles, teats, charting forms,
'etc' in this event.
Who pays for charting forms in other units?  Is it common practice in
hospitals to get suppliers of non-related products to foot the bill for
stationery necessary to the legal operation of the institution?  How is food
served to other inpatients?  Are beverage containers supplied by, say, drug
companies?  
For all I know this is standard practice on all the wards at this
institution, and possibly others.  Can someone enlighten me?  It just seems
very very odd to me that a hospital would attempt to carry on daily
operations without a budget that covers the absolutely bare minimum of
supplies, which in my mind includes paper for charting and containers for
serving food.  Is there a sponsorship agreement in place for toilet paper
too?
So as not to seem high and mighty, I can disclose that a prominent hospital
here has just printed up 22 page pamphlets on high quality paper about its
maternity ward.  Only two of the pages contain actual information; the rest
is advertising from businesses concerned with young families.  Three of the
adverts violate the WHO Code for ethical marketing of breastmilk
substitutes, and this is a Baby-Friendly institution, though the evaluation
was carried out before they started with these pamphlets.  All maternity
institutions here are public, and as such are not run for profit.  (This
situation was uncovered 3 days ago and we are working on it!)
Cheers
Rachel Myr
Kristiansand, Norway

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