Call for end to drug firms' gifts

By Jane Dreaper
BBC News health correspondent

Drug company gifts to doctors are common

Medical experts are calling for drug industry representatives to stop giving gifts to doctors, the BBC has learned.

The report was created by a working party led by the Royal College of Physicians and including members of leading pharmaceutical companies.

The report says the measure would do much to rebalance the relationship between medicine and industry.

The UK regulator, the GMC, says gifts must not be accepted which could be seen to affect clinicians' judgement.

The industry's current code of practice allows drug companies to give small promotional gifts that are relevant to doctors' work, such as pens or surgical gloves.

Firms can also hold educational meetings, while paying delegates' travel and accommodation.

The working party spent more than a year taking evidence about the relationship between doctors and the pharmaceutical industry - and how this affects NHS patients.

It was led by the Royal College of Physicians.

The report will be published in full on Wednesday, but one of the most eye-catching recommendations is that the culture of doctors receiving gifts and hospitality from drug companies should end.

'Not valued'

The experts said: "It is partly because the NHS fails to value doctors, while the pharmaceutical industry is good at expressing this value, that practitioners turn to industry and become dependent on its gift culture.

"Acting on this single recommendation alone would do much to rebalance the relationship between medicine and industry to one based on equality and mutual respect, with improved patient outcomes as the overriding objective of that relationship."

Dr Tony Calland, chairman of the British Medical Association's medical ethics committee, said: "Treatment decisions should of course always be made on the basis of patients' individual needs.

"Although it is important for doctors to receive information about new treatments, they must never be, or seen to be, influenced by the offer of any gift or promotional incentive."

Dr Carol Cooper told the BBC that doctors were professionals and unlikely to be unduly influenced by the drug companies.

The GP said: "There are quite strict rules not just about hospitality but about gifts.

"Doctors are busy professionals and we're also quite well educated and I don't think our judgment is likely to be swayed by being given a pen, a pad, a post-it note or a calendar with someone's name on it."

Liberal Democrat health spokesman Norman Lamb said: "We strongly welcome this groundbreaking report.

"There is a risk that the culture of massive expenditure on gifts from the pharmaceutical industry could distort purchasing practises in the NHS."