[Lil]

I agree, notepads and keyrings are fine and will make bugger all difference to anyone's purchasing choices. I have a problem with high value gifts though, and don't think they are appropriate for anyone, but especially for doctors whose decisions have more of an impact on others than my choice of a law firm or an economic consultancy might. I have duty to make decisions based on the best interests of my company, and it is harder to demonstrate that I have done that in an unbiased way if I have accepted tickets to Wimbledon or fancy dinners in London or whatever. I think it is the same for doctors - their choices should be clean and unadulterated by shiny things dangled in front of them.

And I don't feel sorry for GPs on the whole. They are well paid, and they are the only service I can think of that operates entirely at its own convenience rather than that of its customers. They don't do weekends, they don't do evenings or early mornings, hell, they even gripe about covering emergency call outs now and subcontract it.