My Lords, I am grateful to all the noble Baronesses who have spoken in this group, and in particular to my noble friend Lady Cumberlege for all the work that she has done on patient safety. I have noted their points very carefully and look forward to the further discussion of transparency and scrutiny of healthcare professionals in the debate on the next group where, on the point that the noble Baroness, Lady Thornton, made about payments from pharma and so on, it is my understanding that it will be on industry to declare those nationally.
6.45 pm
As the Government’s response to the First Do No Harm report set out, we agree that the lists of doctors’ interests should be publicly available. It is our belief that this information will be most accessible to patients if it is published by healthcare providers, rather than the GMC. I know this is a point of disagreement with the Committee, but I point to a report by the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence which shows that many patients do not have any knowledge of the regulators and their registers. There is qualitative research that shows that patients are more likely to seek information from the organisation that provides their treatment and care. I think we are trying to reach the same aim of accessibility; our understanding of how that can be best delivered may be different from the Committee’s, but that demonstrates some of the Government’s thinking and good faith on this question.
The role of the professional regulator’s register is to ensure public protection by keeping a register of healthcare professionals who meet required standards. This would be a significant expansion of its functions. We are working with professional healthcare regulators to be clear that all regulated healthcare professionals, not just doctors, must declare their potentially competing interests. I hear from my noble friend and others that they support it going beyond doctors, but we must start somewhere, and that is the approach as we take this forward.
We are also working to ensure that this information is published by employers. This approach will ensure information on healthcare professionals’ interests is accessible for patients at a local level, and research suggests that patients are more likely to seek information from the organisation that provides their treatment and care. It also means patients can be supported to interpret relevant information.
Employers are best suited to identify concerns as they arise and, where required, notify the appropriate regulator. The department is working with the Care Quality Commission, and equivalent organisations across the devolved Administrations, to embed local systems for monitoring and assessing conflicts of interest in existing systems of clinical governance. To move forward at pace we are first prioritising the implementation of a system for doctors to declare their interests, before moving on to other healthcare professionals.
I hope I have given the noble Baroness sufficient reassurance and that, at this stage, she will feel able to withdraw her amendment.