NHS GRAMPIAN
Minute of Meeting of the Grampian Clinical Ethics Committee
held on Tuesday 16 February 2010 in the
Seminar Room, Summerfield House at 5.00pm
AGENDA
PRESENT:
Dr Ruth Stephenson, Clinical Lead/Chair
Dr John Callender, Consultant Psychiatrist/Associate Medical Director
Mr Francis Edwards, Nurse Consultant in Palliative Care
Dr Partha Gangopadhyay, Forensic Psychiatrist
Dr Stuart Hannabuss, Lay Member
Mrs Sue Kinsey, Lay Member
Dr Steven Lynch, General Practitioner
Mr Alistair Ritchie, Lay Member
Mr Scott Styles, UniversitySchool of Law
ATTENDING
Dr Peter Kiehlmann, GP, Aberdeen & National Clinical Lead Palliative Care eHealth, SGHD
No / Item / Action1 / Welcome and Apologies
The Chair welcomed Alistair Ritchie, new Lay Member to his first meeting and introductions were made round the table. Mr Ritchie was also a member of the Grampian Research Ethics Committee.
Apologies for absence were noted from Rev Fred Coutts, Dr Sarah Christie, Prof Neva Haites, Gordon Linklater, Fenella Lewthwaite, Sam McClinton and Mr Nick Renny.
2 / National DNACPR Draft Policy for Consultation
Dr Kiehlmann was welcomed to the meeting to participate in discussion about the draft DNRCPR policy which had previously been circulated to committee members. Dr Kiehlmann advised that different NHS Boards currently operate different policies. NHS Lothian had an integrated DNACPR policy which had worked extremely well and a Scotland-wide policy was now being consulted on. He also mentioned the electronic Palliative Care Summary proposal.
It was noted that feedback from the circulated draft had been heartening but a lot of training and education for personnel involved was required. Training had been organised in March 2010 and the GMC was producing End of Life guidance in mid-June 2010. The policy may be rolled out to conincide with this. The committee discussed the document and advised that some aspects required to be clarified such as the need to discuss the decision with relatives, and the issues regarding lack of Capacity.
3 / Minutes of Meeting held on 8 December 2009
The Minutes were approved as a correct record.
4 / Matters Arising
4.1CPD
It was noted that the Committee had a teaching session for FY1. Dr Stephenson would speak to General Practitioners in June 2010 and to Paediatrics in April 2010. There would also be a session on resource allocation to Grampian NHS Board in May.
4.2Highlighting the CEC
It was suggested that the committee should consider submitting a poster to the NHS Scotland event 2010. The Chair would take this forward
4.3Policy Update
The Consent Policy had now been signed off.
Members were asked to consider how the committee should run its CPD events next year. The Chair would discuss this at the next meeting / RS
4.3CEC Consultation
An audit was planned with Glasgow to identify clinical ethics
requirements.
5 / Physician Assisted Suicide – The Bill
Francis Edwards informed the meeting that the End of Life Assistance Bill had been published. This was a very emotive issue and various arguments were likely to arise as there were issues around Capacity and Consent. The Bill as it stands appeared to be loosely framed and vague.
One of the main issues was around supporting professionals who would be performing the act. The Committee felt that there might be an opportunity to give evidence to the Special Committee dealing with this Bill which was likely to be legislative towards the end of 2010.
6 / Items for Information:
6.1Best Practices in Clinical Ethics Consultation
Two-day conference on 8 and 9 July 2010 at London South Bank University. Further information available on
6.2BBC Radio 4 Inside the Ethics Committee
An e-mail dated 25 January 2010 from Beth Eastwood at the BBC was noted, copies of which had been circulated previously with the agenda. She was looking for suitable cases for the sixth series (of four prgrammes) to be broadcast on Radio 4 in July and August this year.
6.3Ethics Briefings
J Med Ethics 2010 36: 63-64 – by S Brannan, M Davies, V English et al.
7 / Other Competent Business
7.1New guidance from the BMA ‘Ethical responsibility of treating doctors as patients’ had been published.
8 / Date of Next Meeting
Tuesday 16 March 2010 in the Seminar Room, Summerfield House at
5.00 pm.
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