Research governance: Has it become a research hindrance?

Appropriate research governance is an essential element of any research endeavour, particularly where patients are involved. The research governance framework for health and social care was implemented into the UK in 2001, with the aim of improving research quality and safeguarding the public by enhancing the ethical and scientific quality of research (DoH, 2001). Initially setting a quality benchmark perhaps to be envied by other countries, the process has degenerated into something much less worthy of imitation