Maternity hospital allows marketing reps on wards
The Coombe Women's Hospital, has admitted it allows marketing reps to visit new mothers on wards.
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Monday February 02 2009
THE country's leading maternity hospital is giving a marketing company access to mothers and their newly born babies in a desperate attempt to raise cash.
The Eumom company is allowed to send marketing reps into the Coombe Women's Hospital in Dublin to visit up to 7,500 mothers a year and offer them baby vouchers and samples, documents obtained by the Irish Independent under the Freedom of Information Act reveal.
Their key function is to gather marketing information from the mothers, including their home address, home phone number, the sex and age of their new baby and the sex and age of any other children in the family.
The hospital refused to reveal how much it was being paid by Eumom.
Contract
Documents seen by the Irish Independent show the company agreed to pay access fees of €6.53 for each mother and baby signed up. This means the Coombe could have earned up to €245,000 during 2003-2008, based on an average of 7,500 births per year.
The hospital last night claimed the €6.53 per baby figure was "inaccurate", while Eumom said it was "a little bit inaccurate". However, both refused to confirm what the fee per baby was, citing commercial confidentiality.
The Irish Patients' Association (IPA) last night said it had "big concerns" about marketing representatives being given access to mothers.
"They may be overjoyed or have the baby blues -- it's not really a time to be moving in to get personal details that can have an additional commercial benefit," said IPA chairman Stephen McMahon.
Eumom also has similar contracts with all the main maternity hospitals in the State, except Mayo General Hospital and the Rotunda in Dublin.
This has enabled it to build up a database which includes the personal details of thousands of mothers who have given birth since it began its marketing operations in 2003.
Mr McMahon questioned whether the hospital was doing enough to inform patients about the activities of Eumom.
"I'm more concerned to see if the patient has given consent for them to be calling at their bedside. It should be disclosed to these mums that this is a commercial activity," he said.
According to Eumom guidelines obtained by the Irish Independent, the company's marketing reps are given advice on how to change the minds of mothers who do not want to have their details used for marketing purposes. The guidelines contain three suggestions to make to mothers who refuse, including reassurances that all material sent out will be "age and stage appropriate to the baby". They also make it clear that they are expected to get the details of every mother and her newborn baby.
If a mother is breastfeeding, being treated by a doctor, or her baby is crying, the sales reps are advised to "call back later at a more convenient time". Even if they miss a mother after several calls, they are advised to leave a "sorry we missed you card" on her bed or locker.
But the Eumom company defended its activities, saying complaints from mothers about the hospital visits were "extraordinarily rare". Its co-founder, Jim Kelleher, said most mothers were familiar with the company due to its pregnancy support website.
"We certainly wouldn't be getting feedback from mums to say they would be unhappy with it," he said.
The Coombe Women's Hospital said it was satisfied Eumom's activities were "completely ethical" but did not reveal if they had been passed by its ethics committee.
- Michael Brennan Political Correspondent
