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General Information
Trainees
and Informed Consent
Introduction
- What is informed consent?
- How does it affect trainees and
supervising physicians?
Teaching hospitals have a 'consent form' disclosing
the fact that as a teaching hospital sometimes trainees, rather than the attending
specialist, may carry out some procedures or treatments on the patient as part
of their training.
The following paper written by Michael Gorton, Solicitor
points out that, following recent case law, a general consent form may not satisfy
the requirements for informed consent to be specific to a patient in a
particular circumstance.
The paper makes the following points: -
Simple consent is not enough - a doctor has a duty to warn a patient of any material
risk inherent in any proposed procedure or treatment.
- A risk is
considered material when a patient, if warned, would attach significance
to it.
- An attending specialist delegating to trainees the task of
explaining risks to a patient bears the liability if the trainees do not properly
advise the patient.
- The attending specialist bears the legal responsibility
of obtaining informed consent from the patient.
- An attending specialist
relying simply on a generic consent form runs a substantial risk.
Law
Report >>
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