Consent and Decision-Making Negligence
A failure to take a patient through the proper consent process may be regarded as substandard care and may cause the patient significant long-term problems.
Consent in a medical context
Before undergoing medical treatment, procedures or examinations, patients should go through a consent process. This process should inform the patient of the treatment options available to them as well as the risks and benefits associated with them. Medical practitioners should ensure that the patient is fully informed about issues which could be of significance to them in choosing and agreeing to a course of treatment. The patient should then be able to make an 'informed consent' decision.
New General Medical Council guidelines
The essential approach outlined in the new guidelines, which come into force on November 9th 2020, is one of shared decision-making between doctor and patient.
Intended to be 'easier to apply in everyday practice', the new guidance incorporates seven principles:
- All patients have the right to be involved in decisions about their treatment and care and supported to make informed decisions if they are able;
- Decision-making is an on-going process focused on meaningful dialogue: the exchange of relevant information specific to the individual patient;
- All patients have the right to be listened to and to be given the information they need to make a decision and the time and support they need to understand it;
- Doctors must try to find out what matters to patients so they can share relevant information about the benefits and harms of proposed options and reasonable alternatives including the option to take no action;
- Doctors must start from the presumption that all adult patients have capacity to make decisions about their treatment and care. A patient can only be judged to lack capacity to make a specific decision at a specific time, and only after assessment in line with legal requirements
- The choice of treatment or care for patients who lack capacity must be of overall benefit to them, and decisions should be made in consultation with those who are close to them or advocating for them;
- Patient whose right to consent is affected by law should be supported to be involved in the decision-making process and to exercise choice if possible.
Medical negligence
Where the necessary consent procedure has not been applied, a patient may feel that they have undergone treatment or a medical process to which they had not agreed or that they had not been fully informed as to the risks associated with their treatment or the possible alternative treatments available.
Where the patient suffers a poor long-term outcome as a result of this failure, it may be appropriate to make a claim for compensation.
Legal advice
Contact Glynns Solicitors, experts in medical negligence compensation, to discuss your situation with a specialist solicitor.
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