TY - JOUR T1 - Ethical principles and a practical approach to support policy making through the next phases of the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond JF - Clinical Medicine JO - Clin Med SP - e122 LP - e125 DO - 10.7861/clinmed.2020-0843 VL - 21 IS - 2 AU - Zoƫ Fritz AU - Julian L Huppert AU - Kathleen Liddell AU - Richard Holton AU - Jonathan P Fuld Y1 - 2021/03/01 UR - http://www.rcpjournals.org/content/21/2/e122.abstract N2 - There is an urgent need for an ethical framework to help us address the local and national challenges that we face as clinicians during the COVID-19 pandemic. We propose four key commitments from which a practical and consistent ethical approach can be derived. These commitments are to articulate the needs, rights and interests of the different stakeholders affected by any policy; to be accountable and transparent, recognising that people are autonomous individuals with values and concerns of their own; to consider the impact of our actions on the sustainability of the NHS, infrastructure, service demands and staff welfare; and to treat everybody equitably, with all deserving of consideration and care. Implementing these commitments will require a number of specific actions. We must put in place frameworks enabling clear advocacy for each competing objective; communicate policy and practice effectively to the public; promote integration of decision-making among social, primary, secondary and tertiary care and reduce or stop unnecessary or inefficient interventions; minimise health inequalities; and build spare capacity into the system.In this article, we expand on these actions, and note the legal context in which this would be delivered. ER -