Knowledge is GREAT lecture: The Ethics of Triage - Philosophy in the Time of Covid-19

The Ethics of Triage: Philosophy in the Time of Covid-19
featuring
Professor Wayne Martin, University of Essex

Clinicians resort to triage procedures to prioritise allocation of limited medical resources in circumstances where supply is insufficient to meet acute care demand. In such circumstances, some patients may not get the care that they need.

The coronavirus pandemic has placed tremendous pressure on emergency services, and there have been much-publicised shortages of critical life-saving medical resources. Frontline medical personnel have therefore had to struggle not only with the clinical challenges of care, but with fraught ethical dilemmas occasioned by scarcity. Hospital ethics committees and public health bodies around the world have had to develop and adapt policies and procedures to allocate scarce resources.

In this lecture, Professor Martin surveys the history of triage, examining both its ethical underpinnings and its variation across different cultural and historical situations. He also discusses the vexing challenge of how to avoid discrimination when allocating life-saving resources.

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