Safety First - Voices of One Surgery - Issue 4: December 2018

VOICES • FOUR • SURGERY • 9
PHOTO BY KHALID ELSIR, CONSENT FOR PUBLICATION GIVEN
Informed Consent: Exploring the patientsurgeon
relationship in Sudan
Sara A.M.Alam Eldeen.
University of Khartoum, Faculty of Medicine. Khartoum, Sudan
Definition of consent:
Consent to treatment is among the most complex
ethical issues a doctor faces. It is important to
understand what is involved. Consent must be
freely and voluntarily given by a patient with
capacity that has been given all the information he
or she needs to reach a decision.
Consent may be given orally, or it may be implied -
as when a patient comes to our care and offers a
history about his/her illness. For more
complicated procedures, we must obtain the
patient's express consent, and this will usually be
in writing, by signing a consent form. It is vital that
we give the patient all the information they need
about the procedure and clearly document the
information that has been given to the patient [1].
Capacity is defined in the Mental Capacity Act
2005, section 3 [2]. A person has the capacity to
make a decision for themselves if they can:
1. Understand the information relevant to the
decision,
2. Retain that information,
3. Use or weigh that information as part of the
process of making the decision, and
4. Communicate their decision (whether by talking,
using sign language or any other means).
If any one of the four criteria is not met, the patient
will be considered to lack capacity. If we
have any doubt about the patient's capacity, one
should not proceed but instead seek the advice of
colleagues, refer to his/her guard and the law of the
land.