Consent in Health-Care Establishments

In simple terms, consent in the health-care settings can be defined as the act of affirming a medical action which is being performed upon you or depicting that you do not object to the acts/procedure being performed upon you.

Consent in health care settings may be express or implied. For instance, a Patient who continues to come for the administration of a specific IV treatment for a period of weeks without written consent has impliedly consented to the said treatment.

Explicit consent, on the other hand, refers to a situation when a written and complete consent has been provided for performing a specific procedure upon them.

What is Informed Consent? How is it Different from Consent in General?

Informed Consent refers to the act of obtaining consent of a Patient after duly explaining the planned procedure to them which includes explaining the possible negative outcomes of the procedure to them. It is always advisable to obtain informed consent from Patients as the same ensures that they are well informed with regards to the procedure being performed. Further, the same ensures that future litigation can be avoided.

Evolution of the Concept of Informed Consent in India-In Light of the Samira Kohli Judgement

SAMIRA KHOLI VS DR PRABHA MANCHANDA & ANR is often viewed as a landmark judgement in relation with informed consent in the country. The Hon’ble Supreme Court has highlighted the importance of informed consent in addition to defining the concept of taking informed consent in the said judgement. The said judgement is important as not only does it comprehensively define informed consent, but also rules out the paternalistic approach that most medical practitioners had with regards to the treatment to be rendered to Patients.

The Hon’ble Supreme Court has taken aspects of consent in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and the United States into consideration before actually pronouncing the said judgement. The said judgement explicitly states that informed consent must stress upon the various aspects of the treatment which included parameters such as waiting period.

According to the present interpretation of the doctrine of informed consent, patients must be adequately briefed by physicians about the costs, benefits and other aspects of care, and information about the right to obtain no care must also be provided. Competence, disclosure, understanding, voluntariness, and consent are the widely accepted building blocks of the concept of informed consent, based on the model of autonomy. In the above cases and lawsuits, the focus shifted from consent to treatment to the duty of the physician to disclose information. In cases involving consent, the element of disclosure of information has thus gained in importance. It is important to understand which existing legal protection protects the autonomy of the patient in analyzing the legal and ethical source of the consent concept.

The Way Ahead for Health Care Establishments and Conclusion

In the present scenario, it has become extremely important to obtain informed consent from a Patient before actually performing a procedure upon them. Obtaining Informed Consent ensures that the Patient is well aware of the negative effects of the procedure performed upon them. The same also ensures that health-care establishments have effectively fulfilled their responsibility in addition to shielding themselves from litigation.