According to a survey by the Bmj, the revolution that is about to radically transform the British national health system starts under the banner of conflict of interest. In April, the National Health Service will entrust the sum of £60 billion a year, to be spent on health services for citizens, to the newly created "clinical commissioning groups" (CCG) led by general practitioners, albeit in a case out of three, they own stakes of various kinds in private companies supplying the services. Thanks to the law on freedom of access to information, Gareth Jacobucci it had access to the financial data of about 2,500 board members, about half of which were general practitioners. Of these, it found that over one in three (36%) has an economic interest in a private supplier that its "clinical commissioning group" could use as a supplier. In many cases, multiple board members had an interest in the same large private company. For this reason, the health authorities across the Channel are trying to take measures, publishing a code of conduct which requires abstaining from decisions on which personal gain could depend, even if there are those who fear that doctors' abstention could lead to decisions little attention to the clinical aspects: "It is the first time that the extent of the involvement of general practitioners who sit on the boards of directors of the CCGs in private healthcare companies has been fully revealed", commented Fiona Godlee, editor in chief of the «These conflicts will make the assignment of some services difficult. While board members may walk away from discussions when conflicts arise, this could mean that some decisions are being made by a group of people who are largely lacking in clinical expertise. Some of these conflicts are too big to "handle". We believe these general practitioners must choose between their own conflicting interests, and if necessary step down from GCC boards of directors."
BMJ 2013;346:f1569
March 15, 2013 – DoctorNews33
More than a third of GPs on commissioning groups have conflicts of interest, BMJ investigation shows
BMJ extension 2013;346:f1569 (Published 14 March 2013
