Table of Contents
What and who are clinical ethics committees for?
Clinical ethics committees (CECs) are now found in many hospitals and influence patterns of care. The functions of these committees include the formulation of hospital policy on ethicolegal matters, the provision of individual consultation about specific clinical cases and the organisation of education and training.
What does an ethics committee do UK?
Governance arrangements for research ethics committees sets out principles, requirements and standards for RECs that review research proposals relating to responsibilities of the UK Health Departments.

Who regulates ethics committees in the UK?
ECs are part of an accountable and independent Research Ethics Service (RES) (GBR-62) to protect the dignity, rights, safety, and wellbeing of people who take part in research. ECs are authorized and recognized by the United Kingdom Ethics Committee Authority (UKECA).
What is an ethics committee in healthcare?

Ethics committees, or similar institutional mechanisms, offer assistance in addressing ethical issues that arise in patient care and facilitate sound decision making that respects participants’ values, concerns, and interests.
Who should be on a hospital ethics committee?
The Ethics Committee is a multidisciplinary team composed of physicians, nurses, social workers, administrators, chaplains and other employees.
What is the first task of a new ethics committee?
Your committee needs to identify guiding principles and an ethics analysis framework to inform the committee’s deliberations. Ethics codes provide aspirational standards that the LHD can draw upon when considering different courses of action.
What does Ethics Committee look for?
The ethics committee must look at how the study positively or negatively affects participants or their communities. Informed consent. The ethics committee must decide if the consent forms and process are adequate. Community representatives can provide an important perspective on the informed consent process.
What are the responsibilities of an Ethics Committee?
Ethics committees review research proposals involving human participants and their data to ensure that they agree with local and international ethical guidelines. They also monitor studies once they begin and—if necessary—may take part in follow-up actions after the end of the research.
Who serves on a hospital Ethics Committee?
The Ethics Committee is a multidisciplinary team composed of physicians, nurses, social workers, administrators, chaplains and other employees. The Committee has three main purposes.
How do I set up an Ethics Committee?
- Step 1: Secure Leadership Buy-In.
- Step 2: Educate Staff.
- Step 3: Choose Committee Members.
- Step 4: Train Committee Members.
- Step 5: Identify Guiding Principles.
- Step 6: Write a Committee Charter.
- Step 7: Establish Committee Processes.
- Step 8: Pilot Your Process and Deliberate!
Who makes up an Ethics Committee in healthcare?
Does every hospital have an Ethics Committee?
Today, all medical institutions and hospitals in the country have an ethics committee whose main function is to ensure respect for principles of autonomy, beneficence, and justice (50).