Senior medics urge GMC to set up central register of doctors’ declared interests

Doctors’ leaders have urged the General Medical Council to establish a central register for UK doctors to declare their interests in order to improve transparency.

In a letter to GMC chair Clare Marx, shared with The BMJ, 11 senior doctors (full list of signatories below) called on the regulator to show leadership on the matter by taking “definitive, positive action” to tackle long standing deficiencies in the current system.

The letter pointed to “substantial evidence” that doctors’ current declarations of interests are incomplete, and lack enough information to enable “informed and fair” judgments.

It argues that voluntary registers set up by the …