THE British Medical Association (BMA) is demanding a review of the Freedom of Information Act after it was used by a private company to obtain details of the prescribing habits of hundreds of Scottish doctors.

IMS, an American-based market intelligence company, plans to pass on the information to pharmaceutical firms, which could use the data to target GP practices that are not using their drugs.

A similar request to health boards south of the border was rejected because the information was deemed personal and therefore exempt from the legislation.

The BMA is concerned that firms are abusing the legislation, intended to make government and public bodies more open and accountable, and is to raise the issue with Kevin Dunion, the Scottish freedom of information commissioner.

“The principle of the Freedom of Information Act is to provide information that is in the public interest — using the act for commercial gain is not,” said Dr David Love, joint chairman of the BMA’s Scottish general practitioners committee.

“I cannot imagine that it was the intention of this act to have health service bodies spending huge amounts of time producing data for commercial companies so that they can increase their profits.

“It raises serious questions if commercial organisations, such as pharmaceutical companies, are seeking to make a profit by taking advantage of this legislation.

“I believe that there may be a case for reviewing the principles of accessing information to ensure that it is not taken advantage of for issues that are not in the public’s interest.”

Dr Mairi Scott, chairwoman of the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) in Scotland, said: “Freedom of information should be used for public and educational purposes, not for commercial reasons.”

Last year the Scottish NHS spent nearly £920m on prescription drugs, an increase of more than 300% since 1987. IMS submitted its “test” request on January 1, the day the Freedom of Information Act came into force. It asked for prescribing data relating to a group of anti-psychotic drugs for every GP in Scotland.

Although NHS Scotland’s Information Statistics Division (ISD), refused to provide information for every family doctor, it has provided a list of the prescribing habits of every surgery in Scotland with more than one GP. IMS now intends to ask for information about a broader range of drugs.

In England the request was rejected outright by local primary care trusts and the Prescribing Pricing Authority.

Peter Stephens, IMS vice-president of European public health affairs, said the company was examining the legality of selling on the data. “There may well be a commercial impact,” he said.

“All of a sudden we could end up with a lot of information we have never had before that we can combine with our existing databases to provide better services.”

Asked whether the information would be valuable to pharmaceutical companies, Stephens said: “Absolutely, they would want to know it.

“We will inevitably use it if we are sure of the legal situation. If the law says this data can be used commercially, then will we use it commercially? The answer is yes.”

The BMA and the RCGP in Scotland also criticised the data collection exercise as a huge waste of time. According to the ISD, it took more than 40 hours to collect the “substantial” amount of information.

Dunion said that as the act was currently drafted, commercial organisations were entitled to request information.

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