The General Medical Council (GMC) has launched a consultation to find out how doctors and patients can best work together to make decisions about treatment.
The GMC is seeking the views of patients and doctors about draft guidance that sets out principles for good practice in making decisions.
The guidance will, for the first time, provide advice for doctors on how to communicate the risks and possible side effects of treatment with patients. It aims to provide doctors with a framework that can apply to the range of situations that they face in practice. The GMC?s consultation runs until 20 August 2007. To respond go to: https://gmc.e-consultation.net/making_decisions.
The guidance, Consent: patients and doctors making decisions together will cover issues including the language and timing of discussions with patients and will explain how to handle difficulties such as uncertainty over the level or nature of risk. It will also reflect changes in the law, including the new legal safeguards for patients who lack capacity to make their own decisions which are outlined in the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (in England and Wales) and the Adults with Incapacity Act 2000 (Scotland).
Dr Edwin Borman, chair, Consent Review Working Group said:
?Our draft guidance stresses that the act of getting the go-ahead for treatment is more than simply asking a patient to sign their name or tick a box. Consent is part of a wider decision-making process. The purpose of this guidance is to encourage doctors to re-think their approach to getting permission from patients for treatment. Doctors need to work with patients to ensure that both parties are fully informed before they make decisions. We hope that this guidance, once published, will help doctors understand what is expected of them. We?d like to hear from doctors and patients about what they think.?
The guidance will have an impact on all patients but in particular on those who may need support to make decisions about their care. As part of the consultation, the GMC are working with The Alzheimer’s Society, the Scottish Dementia Working Group and Age Concern in Northern Ireland to hold five workshops across the UK. The aim of the workshops is to provide an informal opportunity for doctors, patients and their carers to discuss their views and concerns together.
At each event, doctors, people with dementia and their carers will be invited to participate in an acted scenario involving a person whose capacity to make decisions is fluctuating as a result of early-stage dementia. The real-life scenarios will take those involved through a range of medical situations – from a GP appointment to being treated in hospital following an emergency admission. The workshops will raise issues about how to approach discussions and look at what factors contribute to successfully working together to make joint decisions. The workshops are being scripted and performed by TheatreWorks, part of the National Theatre.
Neil Hunt, chief executive of the Alzheimer?s Society, said:
?It is vital that people with dementia are involved in making decisions about their care and treatment. We hope these workshops will help ensure doctors are provided with the right guidance and support to make this possible. Sometimes people affected by dementia find it difficult to respond to written consultations so these workshops are a valuable and innovative way of hearing their views on this incredibly important issue.?