ABPI survey reveals a third of health workers refuse to admit if they’ve been paid by drug firms

tunisante July 1, 2016 Health

Press Association

and
Sophie Borland, Health Editor For The Daily Mail

Published:
17:24 EST, 30 June 2016

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Updated:
12:03 EST, 1 July 2016

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A third of doctors are refusing to disclose whether they have been put up in hotels or flown around the world by drugs giants, experts claim.

The doctors have failed to provide details of hospitality or direct payments from firms which are hoping to sway them into prescribing certain products.

Today, the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry has published the first-ever register of stating how much doctors, nurses and pharmacists have been paid by drugs firms.

This includes money for advice as well as travel and hospitality expenses to attend meetings or conferences around the world.

A third of doctors are refusing to disclose whether they have been put up in hotels or flown around the world by drugs giants, experts claim. A register has been created following allegations firms are bribing medics (file pic)

The register is being published following allegations that some firms have been bribing doctors and other staff into prescribing their products by putting them up in five star hotels with Jacuzzis in the rooms.

But doctors are not obliged to declare this information and they can legally refuse, claiming it breaches data protection laws.

Today’s register was compiled on a voluntary basis and the ABPI estimates that just 70 per cent of doctors, pharmacists and nurses truthfully stated how much they had been paid by drugs firms.

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And those 30 per cent who kept quiet were the highest recipients, between them sharing around £55 million in hospitality and payment

The register reveals that of those doctors honest enough to supply information, Professor Ian Pavord, from Oxford University received the most in hospitality at £98,700.

He specialises in respiratory medicine and was paid by firms including AstraZeneca, Roche and GlaxoSmithKline for advice and to attend conferences.

The ABPI stressed that many of the doctors receiving the most from drugs firms were top experts in the field of cancer, heart disease or chronic lung problems

They are paid to speak at conferences around the world or to offer advice to companies desperate for their medical expertise.

The new database contains the names of around 16,000 doctors, nurses and other health workers who have received payments or benefits in 2015

But Mike Thompson, the organisation’s chief executive, urged those doctors and other professions who hadn’t declared to think again.

‘To those that didn’t (disclose), my message is, please reflect on your decision.

‘I hope that you will commit to yourself and to your patients to do so next year

‘We believe it’s important that doctors do this with hearts and minds.

‘I hope that the publication of this data will give those who haven’t focused on this a chance to think it through and realise that disclosure is the right thing to do.

‘As an industry it’s important that we capture anything that’s inappropriate and ensure that those individuals are brought to account.’

The register mostly covers doctors – GPs as well as hospital specialists – alongside a few senior nurses and pharmacists.

An investigation last year by the Telegraph exposed how an unnamed drugs firm had hosted a group of healthcare managers and GP in a five star hotel in the spa town Baden Baden, in Germany, with Jacuzzis in the rooms.

One of the organisers boasted that the company had persuaded all of them to switch patients onto their drugs – although this was later disputed.

Professor Jane Dacre, president of the Royal College of Physicians raised concerns that doctors were allowed to ‘opt out’ of supplying information.

‘The publication of the register of payments made by pharmaceutical companies to healthcare professionals is a major sign of progress in our quest towards transparency.

‘However, the register as it is allows healthcare professionals to opt out of disclosure and does not support healthcare professionals who wish to declare that they have not received any funding from pharma.

‘These issues must be addressed by the ABPI and the pharmaceutical companies in the coming year to enable to the public to have confidence in the register as a true picture of the relationship between pharma and healthcare professionals.’