Scotland rejects “sunshine” legislation on searchable database of industry payments
BMJ 2019; 364 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.l913 (Published 27 February 2019) Cite this as: BMJ 2019;364:l913
The Scottish government has rejected an attempt to introduce a “sunshine act” that would create a searchable record of all payments to health professionals from the drug industry and other sources.
More than five years after Peter Gordon, a consultant psychiatrist, petitioned the Scottish parliament to introduce such legislation, he has been informed that no special action will be taken.
A letter to Gordon, from Martyn McDonald of the medicines policy division, says that the matter has been given careful consideration and that advice has already been issued to health professionals in Scotland to support and encourage principles of openness regarding potential financial conflicts of interest. The letter says that this action is “an appropriate response” to the issue.
The General Medical Council encourages doctors to make formal declarations about any potential conflicts of interest, and a voluntary register set up by the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry disclosed payments received by almost two thirds of doctors in 2016.1 Doctors can opt out of the system and, as a result, some of those receiving the biggest payments do not appear on the register. It shows that the drug industry paid a total of £454.5m (€532m; $605m) to work with healthcare professionals and healthcare organisations in the UK in 2016.
The rejection of Gordon’s petition comes as an Aberdeen professor has admitted failing to disclose a £100 000 payment from a mesh manufacturer in a study comparing different types of vaginal mesh implants. Mohamed Abdel-fattah has published a correction to the original 2012 study, acknowledging the payment. The study compared two types of transobturator mesh tapes and found no evidence of thigh pain three years after surgery. Abdel-fattah has denied any links between the funding and the study’s findings.
Gordon said that research has demonstrated that financial conflicts of interest can affect the treatment decisions doctors recommend and that greater transparency is needed.
“The Scottish government has missed an opportunity to be world leading on this,” he said. “It is disappointing that this opportunity to reduce the risk to patients has been rejected.”
Sunshine legislation, so called because it brings things into the light, has been introduced in France and the United States. After the petition in Scotland a consultation was conducted by the Scottish Health Council,2 examining the issues through a series of focus groups. Although only 81 people were involved, the majority said that a mandatory searchable database of payments to health professionals would be helpful.