Public engagement on ethical principles in allocating scarce resources during an influenza pandemic

To investigate the views of students, support staff and academic staff at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada on the allocation of scarce resources during an influenza pandemic to discover if there were any shared values.

A web-based questionnaire was circulated to students, support staff and academic staff asking them how they would rank the priority of eleven different groups for access to scarce resources. They were also asked to select one of seven priority access plans.

The highest priority was given to health care workers by 89% of respondents, closely followed by emergency workers (85%). Only 12.7% of respondents gave politicians high priority. Respondents favored the "Save the most lives" priority access (39.9%) (N=5220).

Current policies in place for the allocation of scarce resources during an influenza pandemic may not properly reflect the views of the general public. Further public consultation should be undertaken in order to uncover how they would allocate scarce resources.