My Lords, I support the noble Baroness, Lady Cumberlege, in what she has just said, as well as my noble friend Lady Finlay and the noble Baroness, Lady Brinton. I pay tribute to the noble Baroness, Lady Cumberlege, for the extraordinary work she did on First Do No Harm, which led—gradually—to this amendment. I too pay tribute to Cyril Chantler, who I first knew when serving on the General Medical Council with him. I declare an interest as chair of University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and of Whittington Health NHS Trust. I am, as I just said, a former member of the General Medical Council, and I am somewhat surprised, I must say, that it has said yet again, including this afternoon by email, that it does not really support this.
7.45 pm
The only point I want to make that has not been made so far by the other three speakers on the subject is that I spoke to the medical directors at both the NHS trusts I chair. In the case of UCH, we have three medical directors; at the Whittington, we have only one. All four, to a man and woman, are strongly supportive of this amendment and this direction of travel. They think it is important for both doctors and patients. It is not only to protect patients; it is to protect doctors and to make it really clear that doctors are being transparent in their practice about who is paying them and who is paying their research funds and putting that money into what used to be called, in my early days in the NHS, a “little slush fund”. If the
trust medical directors support this, I really think we should encourage the GMC to think again, and I very much hope that the message to the GMC from this House will be that it should think again. I also very much hope that the Minister will look closely at this again and see how far he can take it, because there is really no doubt that this should be supported.