Healthcare regulator gives £900k to junk food firms

THE General Medical Council has invested nearly £900,000 in companies that sell unhealthy fast food and drinks, it has emerged.

An investigation by the British Medical Journal found the health watchdog has investments of £870,000 in Nestlé, Mcdonald’s, Starbucks, Pepsico, Cocacola and Unilever, which owns Magnum, Wall’s and Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.

Doctors must register with the regulator, which charges £161 to join and £420 in annual fees.

Martin Mckee, professor of European public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: “Many doctors whose work involves dealing with the harms caused by junk food would, if they knew, despair at how their money is being invested.”

Sam Everington, a Tower Hamlets GP and chair of the London borough’s clinical commissioning group, added: “[Doctors] would be horrified to know their money is invested in fast food companies that are the cause of so much disease, reduced quality and quantity of life and significantly more pressure on the NHS. This is no different to investing in tobacco companies”.

The GMC invests its money through Churches, Charities and Local Authorities Investment Management (CCLA) but does have a say in what the company invests in, already vetoing investment linked to gambling or pornography.

Margaret Mccartney, a Glasgow GP, added: “Practising UK doctors have no choice but to pay substantial annual fees to the GMC. The organisation must show it is using its funds wisely and I’m not convinced it is. It is unclear to me why the GMC holds so much money and why it has chosen to invest as it has.”

A GMC spokesman told the BMJ that as a registered charity it has a duty to make sure it protects and maintains the value of its financial assets.