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Clinical Ethics Support and Education for General Practice Project: A view from pilot countries and global stakeholder discussion

Andrew N PAPANIKITAS, Tania MOERENHOUT, Melissa DRINKWATER, Carmen NADAL, Vera COSTA and Amanda HOWE

Primary healthcare is the biggest healthcare activity globally, with pervasive evolving issues that require ethics support and education. And for a number of reasons it is a poorly served speciality in terms of ethics support and education, which often resides in institutions disconnected from the primary healthcare environment. The WONCA Working Party on Ethics and Professionalism, in collaboration with the Working Parties on Education, Policy and Advocacy, Family Violence, Emergency medicine and Quality and Safety, has been awarded seed funding to develop an ethics support and education model for primary healthcare globally. We have identified a list of pilot countries: Australia, Chile, Portugal, South Africa, and the UK. We aim for a mutally informative roundtable discussion with WONCA Europe delegates who by default represent a key stakeholder group.The WONCA Working Party on Ethics and Professionalism will use the workshop to showcase the clinical ethics support project so far, and illustrate this using our pilot countries: Australia, Chile, Portugal, South Africa, and the UK. Delegates will learn about ethics support and education as it currently exists in these countries for primary healthcare. We also aim to discuss: the literature, modes of support and education, training for ethics facilitators, what institutions might take on ethics support, and how we might reach appropriate policymakers, policy workers and publics to ensure that we offer effective supportive and sustainable structures. We will discuss costs of such activities, risks, governance and other practical aspects of ethics support around the world. We expect that the discussion will be useful to all primary healthcare leaders and educators, as well as clinicians considering where they might access support in their own institutions.Brief discussion of the WONCA clinical ethics support project. Round-table discussion with delegatesWe will report on what we know so far from pilot countries as a knowledge exchange opportunity The discussion will also inform the WONCA clinical ethics support projectWe expect that the discussion will be useful to all primary healthcare leaders and educators, as well as clinicians considering where they might access ethics support and education in their own institutions.