NHS bans staff from taking pharmaceutical gifts

The NHS has announced new measures to prevent NHS officials from accepting gifts from pharmaceuticals companies.

Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, said the new rules would bring “further transparency in the way that decisions on how precious NHS resources are spent.”
“These tough new rules,” he added, “will ensure every penny possible is directed to providing front-line patient care.”
From 31 st March 2016, breaking the new guidelines could see individuals and NHS organisations prosecuted for fraud, bribery or corruption.
To ensure against all conflicts of interest, the NHS will be organising extra training sessions to ensure Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) staff remain independent.
A “conflicts of interest guardian” will be appointed to oversee compliance in every CCG, and all CCGs will be required to complete an annual conflict of interest audit, publishing any findings online.
A 50% increase in the number of lay members appointed to CCG medicines commissioning boards and tougher statutory guidelines will help enforce a “clear, consistent approach” across the NHS.
The new measures follow last year’s investigation by The Daily Telegraph which claimed some senior NHS staff were ‘being paid thousands of pounds and taken on expensive trips by drug companies lobbying to get their products used by the health service’.

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Phill Allen

Managing Director

An in and outside the (bioprocess) box thinker, fluid management specialist Phill knows a thing or two about keeping pharma liquid logistics flowing.

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