St George's, University of London, London SW17 0RE, UK.
Postgrad Med J. 2009 Sep;85(1007):451-4. doi: 10.1136/pgmj.2008.075879.
To identify the consultation activities of clinical ethics committees (CECs) in the UK and the views of CEC chairpersons regarding such activities.
An anonymous, password-protected online questionnaire was sent by e-mail to 70 CEC chairpersons. The questionnaire contained 14 items.
Of the 70 CECs contacted, 30 responded (a response rate of 43%). There has been an almost fourfold increase in the number of CECs in the past 7 years. Over half of the CECs that responded had considered three or fewer active cases and three or fewer retrospective cases in the preceding year. Eighty percent of chairpersons felt that the number of active cases considered by their committee was too low. Seventy percent of CECs had rapid response teams. Aside from low consultation caseloads, chairpersons identified a number of concerns, including education and training of members, composition of CECs, low profile and lack of funding and support. Although most respondents believed there is a need for clinical ethics support in the NHS, many noted the limited use of the services, even after efforts to increase the visibility of their CEC.
Despite a sharp increase in the absolute numbers of CECs across the UK, the number of cases considered by the majority of CECs is low. The findings presented here suggest we must reflect on the reasons for such low caseloads and pause to consider whether the committee model is most appropriate for the UK context.
识别英国临床伦理委员会（CEC）的咨询活动，以及 CEC 主席对这些活动的看法。
通过电子邮件向 70 名 CEC 主席发送了一份匿名、密码保护的在线问卷。问卷包含 14 个项目。
在联系的 70 个 CEC 中，有 30 个做出了回应（回应率为 43%）。在过去的 7 年中，CEC 的数量几乎增加了四倍。超过一半的 CEC 在过去一年中考虑了三个或更少的活跃案例和三个或更少的回顾性案例。80%的主席认为他们委员会考虑的活跃案例数量太低。70%的 CEC 有快速反应团队。除了咨询案例数量低之外，主席们还指出了一些问题，包括成员的教育和培训、CEC 的组成、知名度低以及缺乏资金和支持。尽管大多数受访者认为 NHS 需要临床伦理支持，但许多人指出，即使在努力提高 CEC 的知名度之后，对该服务的使用也很有限。
尽管英国 CEC 的绝对数量急剧增加，但大多数 CEC 考虑的案例数量较少。这里提出的调查结果表明，我们必须反思这种低案例量的原因，并考虑委员会模式是否最适合英国的情况。
