Abstract
AbstractObjectiveTo understand arrangements for doctors’ declarations of interest in Scotland and England in the context of current recommendations.DesignCross sectional study of a random selection of NHS hospital registers of interest by two independent observers in England, all NHS Boards in Scotland, and a random selection of Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) in England.SettingNHS Trusts in England (NHSE), NHS Boards in Scotland, CCGs in England, and private healthcare organisations.ParticipantsRegisters of declarations of interest published in a random sample of 67 of 217 NHS Trusts, a random sample of 15 CCGs of in England, registers held by all 14 NHS Scotland boards, a purposeful selection of private hospitals/clinics in the UK.Main Outcome MeasuresAdherence to NHSE guidelines on declarations of interests, and comparison in Scotland.Results76% of registers published by Trusts did not routinely include all declaration of interest categories recommended by NHS England. In NHS Scotland only 14% of Boards published staff registers of interest. Of these employee registers (most obtained under Freedom of Information), 27% contained substantial retractions. In England, 96% of Clinical Commissioning Groups published a Gifts and Hospitality register, with 67% of CCG staff declaration templates and 53% of governor registers containing full standard NHS England declaration categories. Single organisations often held multiple registers lacking enough information to interpret them. Only 35% of NHS Trust registers were organised to enable searching. None of the private sector organisations studied published a comparable declarations of interest register.ConclusionDespite efforts, the current system of declarations frequently lacks ability to meaningfully obtain complete health care professionals’ declaration of interests.
Publisher
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Reference28 articles.
1. Doctors’ conflicts of interest
2. Financial Interest and Its Disclosure in Scientific Publications
3. Hearing before the Human Resources and Intergovernmental Relations Subcommittee of the Committee on Government Operations House of Representatives One Hundred First Conference First Session. 13/6/89 US Government Printing Office. https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=z2HEes4eIKEC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false
4. Conflict of interest [Conflits d’intérêts];International Committee of Medical Journal Editors;CMAJ,1993
5. Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals