From The BMJ Opinion: “One recommendation put forward by the Cumberlege review is that the General Medical Council (GMC) should maintain a publicly available list of the financial interests held by practising doctors.
But, while greater transparency about the nature of the financial interests is important, on its own, such a move is unlikely to mitigate the risks to patient safety and may make matters worse.
In the first place, such a policy has the potential to normalise the conflicts between the interest of the patient and the financial interests of the doctor . . .
Another issue with the proposed policy is that it puts the onus on the patient to ensure that their doctor is safe to practise . . . However, ‘caveat emptor’ or ‘buyer beware’ should never be a principle which applies within healthcare.”
