NHS bans pharmaceutical staff from taking drug company gifts

D. Telegraph 1.4.16 “NHS KICKBACK FROM DRUG FIRMS TO BE BANNED”

NHS officials will be banned from accepting gifts from pharmaceutical companies, after a Daily Telegraph investigation exposed widespread potential conflicts of interests.   Senior NHS staff are paid thousands of pounds & taken on expensive luxury trips by drug co’s in order to get their products used by the NHS. The body that oversees hundreds of NHS employees has announced the new rules because NHS staff who decide which drugs are used by GPs & hospitals, were exposed in the report as being paid up to £500 per day & enjoying lavish foreign trips from pharma co’s.  They enjoyed “unacceptable” levels of hospitality “out of proportion to the occasion.”  A report by the ‘Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority’ concluded that this constituted “an inducement to recommend” the company’s products.  Last month the D. Telegraph found over 130 NHS officials who are involved in assessing which drugs are given to patients by the NHS, are also paid consultants of pharmaceutical companies.

Ann

Corruption is everywhere.