The General Medical Council (GMC) in the UK has raised concerns that some doctors are “exploiting patients’ vulnerability” and are seeking to make hundreds of thousands of pounds selling private coronavirus tests to people worried that they may have been infected with the virus, reports The Guardian. The GMC said no doctor should try to “profit from the fear and uncertainty caused by the pandemic”.
The report says the regulator’s warning followed reports that Dr Mark Ali, who runs a clinic called the Private Harley Street Clinic, made a £1.7m profit selling £2.5m worth of tests in less than a week. Ali denied saying he had made £1.7m profit. The report says when approached, he declined to state how much he had made. It is understood that he claimed he had been misquoted.
A spokesperson for the GMC said: “We would be concerned to learn that doctors are exploiting patients’ vulnerability or lack of medical knowledge, in order to profit from the fear and uncertainty caused by the pandemic. We also expect doctors to be clear about the safety and accuracy of COVID-19 tests, and not to offer or recommend tests that are unproven, clinically unverified or otherwise unreliable.”
Randox Laboratories, the lab Ali was reported to be using for testing, did not respond to requests for comment, the report said.
[link url="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/22/gmc-concerned-about-doctors-exploiting-coronavirus-fears"]Full report in The Guardian[/link]