NHS Profits From Pregnancy Labeled "Unacceptable"

Date: May-30-2013Trusted organizations, including the NHS and some UK royal colleges, profit by selling commercial advertisers access to pregnant women through promotions like Bounty bags, which has been labeled "unacceptable" by GP Margaret McCartney in a new report.

McCartney pointed out, in British Medical Journal (BMJ), that a commercial company was offered access to moms through adverts and editorial content in a magazine being established by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, called "Baby and You" - which is intended to be given to pregnant women for free.

McCartney explained:

"The college receives £90,000 a year from the publisher, but said it is 'concerned to be associated with this practice,' which it described as 'ethically questionable' and that it has 'strict policies on its advertising and sponsorship and does not seek advertorials for any of its publications.'"

Another promotions company that has a lot of contact with new families is Bounty. Each year, 2.6 million "baby bags" are given out - some by NHS healthcare experts and some by the company's officials in postnatal wards.

Each year, Bounty pays £2.3m to the NHS, and according to a 2013 survey of 4,000 parents, more than 90% of moms are "satisfied" with the packs.

On the other hand, chief executive of the National Childbirth Trust (NCT), Belinda Phipps, is not so happy how the NHS allows Bounty access to new moms:

"Within hours of giving birth, they are being asked questions - their name and address, details of life insurance - and they give them in good faith, thinking they're speaking to a hospital person. In fact it's a commercial person. The NHS is condoning a sales team to collect data from mothers in order to sell their name on to commercial interests."

The NCT discovered from a survey conducted in 2010 that 50% of more than 1,000 parents did not know, and were not pleased, that their information would used for advertising purposes.

An additional 37% of the subjects knew that their information would be sold on and were not happy, while the rest of the participants were indifferent.

Over £90,000 is given to Bounty each year from H M Revenue and Customs to give out child benefit forms in its packs, the NCT also found.

"The lack of knowledge about what signing over your details means is troubling in a hospital environment, which should take consent and confidentiality seriously," McCartney said.

"The hours after birth are hardly an optimal time to obtain formal consent. And is the presence of a non-essential Bounty worker on the ward desirable?" she added.

A book called Emma's Diary, endorsed by the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP), is also discussed in the report. It is posted in bulk to general practices to distribute to women who are pregnant.

Only 25 pages of the book contain medical information, while the majority of pages (119) are made up of adverts. The receipt of information offers "gift packs" for mothers. "Is this helpful knowledge deserving of the stamp of RCGP approval," McCartney asked.

Over £214,000 ($323,000) is recorded in the RCGP's accounts as "other income including grants and sponsorships."

Although the RCGP would not report to the journal how much of this was the net gain from advertising through the book, they declared that "all content is quality assured by our RCGP editorial board who do a sterling job in ensuring that it is updated to reflect any changes to medical working practices, latest research findings [and] government guidelines."

Is it just that the NHS infers its consent for the several products being advertised to parents, McCartney asked?

Is it okay for parents to be put under this pressure and for doctors, midwives, and radiographers to be letting it happen?

"Some conflicts of interest in medicine are hard to avoid. Others are not. These should be easy," McCartney concluded.

Written by Sarah Glynn

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