19. Financial and commercial dealings

You must be honest in financial and commercial matters relating to your work. In particular:
• if you charge fees, you must tell patients if any part of the fee goes
to another doctor;1
• if you manage finances, you must make sure that the funds are
used for the purpose they were intended for and are kept in a
separate account from your personal finances;
• you must not defraud patients or the service or organisation you
work for;
• before taking part in discussions about buying goods or services,
you must declare any relevant financial or commercial interest
which you or your family might have in the purchase.
You must act in your patients’ best interests when making referrals and
providing or arranging treatment or care. So you must not ask for or accept any inducement, gift or hospitality which may affect or be seen to affect your judgment. You should not offer such inducements to colleagues
If you have financial or commercial interests in organisations providing health care or in pharmaceutical or other biomedical companies, these must not affect the way you prescribe for, treat or refer patients.
If you have a financial or commercial interest in an organisation to which you plan to refer a patient for treatment or investigation, you must tell the patient about your interest. When treating NHS patients you must also tell the health care purchaser.
Treating patients in an institution in which you have a financial or commercial interest may lead to serious conflicts of interest. If you do so, your patients and anyone funding their treatment must be made aware of your financial interest. In addition, if you offer specialist services, you must not accept patients unless they have been referred by another doctor who will have overall responsibility for managing the patient’s care. If you are a general practitioner with a financial interest in a residential or nursing home, it is inadvisable to provide primary care services for patients in that home, unless 1 Sharing a fee with another doctor does not in this setting include pooling income between the partners of a general practice  the patient asks you to do so or there are no alternatives. If you do this, you must be prepared to justify your decision. You should not ask for or accept any material gifts or loans, except those of insignificant value, from companies that sell or market drugs or appliances. You must not ask for or accept fees for agreeing to meet sales representatives.
You may accept personal travel grants and hospitality from companies for conferences or educational meetings, as long as the main purpose of the event is educational. The amount you receive must not be more than you would normally spend if you were paying for yourself.
Registered medical practitioners have the authority to sign a variety of
documents, such as death certificates, on the assumption that they will only sign statements they believe to be true. This means that you must take reasonable steps to verify any statement before you sign a document. You must not sign documents which you believe to be false or misleading.

GMC Good Medical Practice, paragraphs 48–55

 The excellent GP
- is an example of financial probity in society
- ensures that his or her financial affairs are capable of withstanding searching outside audit
- never seeks inappropriate personal gain in the pursuit of practice
- provides truthful and honest information on certificates and other documents

The unacceptable GP
- carelessly attaches his or her name to documents or certificates
- knowingly provides false information on such documents
- seeks personal financial gain from his or her patients other than the normal remuneration expected from his or her job