A consultation has been launched by the UK Ethical Standards in Health and Life Sciences Group (ESHLSG) into creating a public register of payments made to healthcare professionals by commercial organisations, in order to improve transparency in the industry.
The group, made up of 20 organisations working together to improve the relationship between healthcare professionals and the pharmaceutical and life sciences industries, believes public disclosure of payments to health professionals will build greater trust between the medical community, industry and patients.
As part of the consultation, all healthcare organisations, commercial companies and individual healthcare professionals are being asked to answer consultation questions on the ELHLSG website.
The consultation will be ongoing for three months only.
Companies working in the UK will begin disclosing the total of payments made to healthcare professionals, and the number of individuals receiving payments in spring 2013.
Royal College of Physicians (RCP) president and ESHLSG co-chair Sir Richard Thompson said; "This consultation is intended to establish whether there is, in principle, support for a publically available, single, searchable system for disclosure of payments that is inclusive of all commercial life science organisations working in healthcare."
ESHLSG has considered and outlined a set of principles on which a model of disclosure could be established, and how healthcare professionals and the industry might work together in such a system.
Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) president and ESHLSG co-chair Deepak Khanna said; "The consultation outlines ESHLSG’s vision of the principles behind how a system of declaration could work. It does not make recommendations about which payments to declare or cover, or make specific recommendations about the practical implementation of such a system.
"Our view is that the co-creation of a system to declare payments is the right course of action and that it should be developed and agreed jointly by the relevant stakeholder groups. A move to greater transparency would address societal demands, represent an evolution in the relationship between commercial organisations and healthcare professionals and would support new ways of working in the future."
