Informed consent - who knows? Results of a hospital audit project

Abstract

Increasingly patients are seeking more information about medical procedures and their risks, and as a profession we must act on this. Despite recent guidance from the Department of Health and British Medical Association (BMA), obtaining consent for surgical procedures is still thought to be sub-optimal. An audit of the consent procedure at a District General Hospital is presented here. The aim is to establish who is obtaining the consent of the patient and what is being said to the patient prior to them consenting. The results show that in most cases it is the House Surgeon taking the consent. The discussion that takes place with the patient about their procedure does not reach a standard that is set by the Consultants within the same hospital. Based on this audit the author proposes additional measures designed to achieve a higher standard of informed consent and a more consistent approach to it.