My wife is a GP working in NHS Scotland and was recently invited to the “PULSE LIVE 2015″ educational conference to be held in Edinburgh on the 19 May 2015:
This educational conference is to be held in Edinburgh’s Italianate and historical CORN EXCHANGE. General Practitioners can register for a free place and 7 CPD hours are accredited:
In my earlier career I trained as a Landscape Architect at Edinburgh University and was awarded the Scottish Chapter prize. This will explain to you why old buildings and designed landscapes interest me. The Corn Exchange was where traders brought grain to sell. It was a place of barter: where goods were exchanged for money:
With this in mind it is worth looking at the PULSE LIVE 2015 programme and noting that a significant number of the educational talks are sponsored by the pharmaceutical industry or other commercial enterprises. The speakers are mostly from NHS Scotland and it is fair to reasonably conclude that they will receive honoraria for giving their talks:
My interest in this area relates to my wish to consider the ethics of medical practice. In this instance, my interest is in public transparency of any financial transactions between healthcare workers/academics and wider commerce.
I should make it very clear: I understand that conflicts of interest are part of life.
Over a few years I have collected the invites to NHS doctors to attend pharmaceutical sponsored education. These invites are collected here and demonstrate that financial sponsorship by the pharmaceutical industry (or commercial enterprises), as included in PULSE Live 2015, is generally the norm. Dr McCartney has considered this in her BMJ Column of last week: Forever indebted to pharma—doctors must take control of our own education:
My petition to the Scottish Government for A Sunshine Act is a request that transparency surrounding (non NHS) financial payments made to all those involved in healthcare (including academics and all those involved in medical education) to be a requirement by statute. In terms of the United Kingdom, I have suggested that Scotland might lead the way on this. America and France have introduced a Sunshine Act.
NHS Scotland has failed (in my view, most miserably) to follow Scottish Government guidance HDL 62. This Government Circular was issued to all NHS Scotland Chief Executives over a decade ago. The Scottish Government has, since my petition which was based on my research, accepted widespread failure across NHS Scotland to follow HDL 62.
The Cabinet Secretary for Health, Wellbeing and Sport, Shona Robison MSP, wrote recently to the Convener of the Scottish Parliament Petitions Committee.
The Cabinet Secretary for Health, Wellbeing and Sport, asks for a “broader view” on an issue that the Scottish Government agree is “important”. The Cabinet Minister will be attending PULSE Live 2015 for the “Big Interview”:
Perhaps the Cabinet Secretary for Health, Wellbeing and Sport, will look upwards to the roof of the Corn Exchange which is celebrated for its “massive single-span”. Sponsored Medical Education also celebrates a massive span across NHS Scotland. Please do not be fooled into thinking that this, like the Corn Exchange and the bartering it once housed, may be a thing of the past.
So go on, if you dare, be like me and shout about this from the roof-top! If we reach for the sunshine perhaps we might all be a little healthier. Sunshine on Leith!
