NHS research ethics committees

doi:10.1136/bmj.39201.508692.2C

BMJ 2007;335:6 (7 July), doi:10.1136/bmj.39201.508692.2C

Editorials

NHS research ethics committees

Still need more common sense and less bureaucracy

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

National Health Service research ethics committees exist toensure that research performed within the NHS complies withrecognised ethical standards and to protect the rights, safety,and dignity of all actual or potential participants. In thepast decade the operation of research ethics committees hascome under, and continues to come under, close scrutiny. Researchersnow consider the process of acquiring ethical approval to beso onerous that it is compromising clinical research.¹ ² ³ Medicaleducators also think that the process is too unwieldy to allowundergraduate students to acquire research experience,⁴ an essentiallearning outcome required by the General Medical Council.⁵

To understand why such dissatisfaction has arisen we need togo back to the early 2000s, when the Central Office for ResearchEthics Committees (COREC) was established and the Departmentof Health issued the Research Governance Framework for Healthand Social Care.⁶ The implementation in 2001 of the . . . [Full text of this article]

Louise Robinson, senior lecturer in primary care¹, Deborah Murdoch-Eaton, professor of medical education², Yvonne Carter, dean³

¹ Institute of Health and Society, Newcastle University, Newcastle NE2 4AA, ² Medical Education Unit, School of Medicine, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9NL, ³ Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL

a.l.robinson@ncl.ac.uk

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