The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners

As a GP you will often deal with a number of challenging ethical issues when trying to help your patients. You will have developed your own skills and patterns of managing difficult options, often consulting your colleagues and/or peer groups. Occasionally decisions you have to make or have made in the past are very complex and there seems to be no clearly useful direction to take. You may struggle with decisions around your patients involving, for example, end of life issues, unequal accessibility to ancillary primary and secondary health services, signing benefit forms, consent, confidentiality, duty and desire to do good and avoid harm and fairness to all.

The CEAG discusses the case from various perspectives and provides insights and opinions. It is in no way proscriptive or disciplinary. It's goal is to support you and give a variety of viewpoints to your clinical ethical problem. They do not comment on matters of clinical/medical management.

The CEAG's membership includes an Ethicist, General Practitioner, Senior Clinicians, Senior Nurses, Allied Health, Upper Management, Lawyer, Maori representative and a Layperson. They meet once a month on a Monday afternoon.

If you have a case you would like to discuss, please contact CEAG secretary Paula Wood by email.