[The Frequency of Ethical Conflicts in Primary Care and the Need for Ethical Consultations - The Perspective of General Practitioners].

Background:  Our knowledge about ethical conflicts in primary care is limited. The aim of this study was to ascertain the frequency of ethical conflicts and the need of professional consultation services - seen from the perspective of general practitioners (GPs).
Methods:  A random sample of GPs from Lower Saxony, a federal state of Germany, received a standardized questionnaire about their experiences with ethical conflicts and their need for an ethical consultation.
Results:  A total of 456 GPs took part in the survey (response rate = 45.6 %). Eighty percent experienced the conflict of a "withdrawal of medicines due to questionable benefit for the patient" once in 3 months, at least (95 % confidence interval: 76.0 to 83.6 %). Further frequent conflicts were "the continuation of a therapy of questionable benefit" (68 %; 63.3 to 72.0 %) and the "usefulness of diagnostic procedures for early detection of diseases and risk factors in seriously ill patients" (62 %; 57.7 to 66.8 %). About one-third (138/451) of the participants requested an ethical consultation. GPs frequently wished an ethical consultation by phone.
Conclusions:  Although GPs experienced several of the ethical conflicts frequently, only one-third requested an ethical consultation. Low threshold offers may be a way to make ethical consultations more attractive for GPs.
Competing Interests: Disclosure The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.
(© Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.)