Secrecy and medicines

The culture of secrecy in medicine runs deep and strong and is a serious obstacle to health. Secrecy means medicine cannot be honest with itself. It debases relationships in medicine, disfigures science, flaws decision-making and handicaps patients. Secrecy deprives people of the information and understanding they need, individually and collectively, to participate effectively in the planning and realisation of health.In the UK, a culture of openness in medicine seems a long way off, especially in drug regulation, though the new Code of Practice on Access to Government Information admits something of a foot in the government's door. Two case histories are outlined of attempts to use this voluntary code to secure aggregated statistical data relating to drug consumption and to suspected adverse drug reaction reports. The reasons given by the UK authorities for refusing to disclose seem to the author most revealing and at times almost surreal.