Thousands of people referred for urgent cancer checks every month are set to be diagnosed and treated sooner, as the NHS reforms its cancer standards to reflect what matters most to patients and
Informed consent in the medical context is defined in the Oxford Dictionary as “permission from a patient for a medical professional to carry out treatment, with complete understanding of the possible risks and consequences.” In both medicine and surgery, clinicians take consent regularly for routine and emergency treatments and procedures. Ethically, we must take consent to respect patient autonomy. Legally, performing a procedure without consent is a criminal offence and the physician can be charged with battery.
In the post-Montgomery era, and in light of the updated guidelines from the General Medical Council (GMC) on consent there has never been a more appropriate time to review consent processes.1 The new guidance, in line with the Montgomery judgment,2 takes a firm step away from the previous patriarchal (“your doctor knows best”) approach and focuses instead on dialogue with the patient to identify the particular risks which that patient would need to understand before