SEPARATE CONSENT FOR DIAGNOSTIC TESTS & TREATMENT IS REQUIRED
Prof.Dr.Dram,profdrram@gmail.com,Gastro Intestinal,Liver Hiv,Hepatitis and sex diseases expert 7838059592,9434143550
Most often in our day to day practice,we Doctors usually take one consent only on a paper where some printed lines are written or printed and patient usually signs or mostly by any body with the patient and Doctor start doing all the treatment and every diagnostic treatment but this is not sufficient in Legal court .As day by day we are finding that extensive legal cases are lodged in consumer court,civil and even criminal court for any minor to major overlooking of patient or simply harassing doctor for monetarily or mental benefit or simply malign Doctor in society for creading media hype and for increasing TRP, social media,print and electronic media always give headlines to such cases against Doctors. Therefore,we Doctors should be over cautious,except to give consultancy in opd in clinic or hospital where consent is implied as patient has come to our opd for consultation,every other procedure on patient requires patient's consent written and duly signed by me better patient writes by his or her hand and signed it maintaining that he is able to understand it well and it's implication in good mental and alert condition if patient cant write patient relative or who brought for treatment should write it clearly as mentioned above mentioning his/her relations with the patient. Every examination whether physical internal or laboratory omust be explained to patient and should be consented separately.Even if we avoid consent for different examinations by a single consent ,we must not forget that for treatment or operation procedure separate consent must be taken where all complication or untoward effect of such treatment with other available modes of therapy available should be also mentioned for better legal help,if in detail and large than patient can sign on printed consent too but patient should write that he has read consent and understands it well in his own writing if possible otherwise by attendant,every minor or psychiatric patient needs consent to be provided by parents or close relatives or care takers.Only in unconscious unknown patient brought alone in emergency than either police or person bringing such patient in opd should sign or a Doctor can give consent till attendant comes but treatment of such person should not be withheld for the consent. Our Medical council of India rules as follows in this matter:---- "Consent given for a diagnostic procedure is not a valid consent for therapeutic treatment as the diagnostic procedure and therapeutic treatment are different and separate consent for both are required. The registered medical practitioner, hospital should always inform the patient and his/her relatives about the diagnostic procedure as well as therapeutic treatment separately and should take informed written consent for both separately."
The 3 Judges Constitution Bench of Hon’ble Supreme Court of India in the landmark judgment titled as “Samira Kohli versus Prabha Manchanda, AIR 2008 SC 1385 has held that: “32 We may now summarize principles relating to consent as follows: (iii) Consent given only for a diagnostic procedure, cannot be considered as consent for therapeutic treatment. Consent given for a specific treatment procedure will not be valid for conducting some other treatment procedure. The fact that the unauthorized additional surgery is beneficial to the patient, or that it would save considerable time and expense to the patient, or would relieve the patient from pain and suffering in future, are not grounds of defence in an action in tort for negligence or assault and battery. The only exception to this rule is where the additional procedure though unauthorized, is necessary in order to save the life or preserve the health of the patient and it would be unreasonable to delay such unauthorized procedure until patient regains consciousness and takes a decision. ”
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