This ended up being my last council.
One of the reasons I wanted to be back on council was because I knew there was going to be a review of the decisions around sponsorship at the College.
Every since I have been a member there have been problems with who the college has taken money from. So from the conference sponsorship – from Babylon, to this year Prostate Cancer UK – and previous issues such as Emma’s Diary to the decision to take money from Novo Nordisk … the reason why organisations want to sponsor is because they want to influence, one way or another.

The problem for doctors is that we should not act according to who is the most attractive/moneyed influencer, we should act according to the best science. If we want trust, and if we are deserving of trust, then we should behave in ways which merit it. That should include declining organisations offer of money because we know that influence results.

I did my best to discuss the evidence (I travelled for 12 hours in order to speak on this for the prescribed 2minutes). It had no impact at all. The vote was for the status quo.

Around 2016 I brought a motion to council to stop our relationship with Emma’s Diary. I explained that it was adverts and mailing lists sales and a tiny bit of medical information (the college made money as it supplied printed copies for GPs to give to pregnant women). I thought this was wrong as it made GPs a conduit for advertising. I was voted down, and I wept almost all the way back to Glasgow. It brought no joy when the ICO’s decision to fine them was made in 2018. It was avoidable.

And so, the same again. I gave it a few days to think it over and then resigned from council as it was clear to me that evidence didn’t change minds -and we know this from research, people need stories and confidence to change – not feeling that they will be asked to pay more for attending a conference. (And especially given that most GPs don’t go to the main conference as it costs a fortune – and parts of the day have no options but for sponsored sessions).

I find this soul destroying, to be honest, including the nature of the debate. The core of medicine is trust. We know, repeatedly, that opting into conflicts is highly risky and are associated with more expensive and poorer quality care. Basically, I have failed, and I don’t think that staying on council is going to make any difference for the year I have left. Time to find other ways.