The General Dental Council and General Chiropractic Council have released a case study, titled ‘Conflicts of interest: Competing interests and incentives’, as part of this joint regulator work.
The regulators’ statement sets out the expectations of health and care professionals in relation to avoiding, declaring and managing conflicts of interest across all areas. It also includes advice on putting the interests of people in their care before their own, maintaining appropriate personal and professional boundaries and being open about any conflict as early as possible.
Please find the case study below:
Conflicts of interest: Competing interests and incentives
The scenario
Dr Brown is a chiropractor, who rents rooms for his clinic above a dental surgery. He and the dentists share a receptionist, who answers the phones and manages diaries. The dental surgery only takes private patients.
The dentists are very supportive of chiropractic treatment and, in fact, have a special interest in headaches and recognise that Dr Brown sees patients with these sorts of problems.
One of the receptionists approaches Dr Brown with a proposition from two of the dentists. They say that if he were to refer his patients to them for procedures aimed at achieving the ‘perfect smile’ through a combination of tooth straightening and tooth whitening, then they would pay him a commission of 15 per cent of their patient fee for every referral he makes.
What did Dr Brown consider?
Dr Brown considered whether it might be best to discuss this proposition with the dentists themselves as opposed to the receptionist.
Dr Brown considered whether a reasonable person would think that his judgment was influenced by putting his financial interest over those of his patients’. Dr Brown thought about whether his professional judgement could be compromised, and how he would be able to defend his actions if they were ever questioned.
What did Dr Brown do?
Dr Brown realised that directing patients to dentists without being honest about this type of relationship or understanding when a referral might be appropriate, would likely be, or be perceived to be, a conflict of interest. This could damage his patients’ trust in him.
Dr Brown also knows that any referral should only ever be made if clinically appropriate and in the best interests of the patient. He decided to meet with the dentists to discuss what each other did and, therefore, become better informed as to when appropriate referrals (in the best interests of patients) might be made, in both directions.