Regulating doctors, ensuring good medical practice

Consent guidance: Contents

  Paragraphs
How the guidance applies to you  
Part 1: Principles 1-6
Partnership 3-6
Part 2:  Making decisions about investigations and treatment 7-60
Sharing information and discussing treatment options 7 – 26
               Answering questions 12
               Reasons for not sharing information with patients 13-17
               Sharing information 18-21
               Involving families, carers and advocates 22
               Obstacles to sharing information 23-25
               Responsibility for seeking a patient's consent 26-27
Discussing side effects, complications and other risks 28-36
Making decisions 37-43
               The scope of decisions 37-39
               Making decisions about potential future events 40
               Ensuring that decisions are voluntary 41-42
               Respecting a patient's decisions 43
Expressions of consent 44-50
Recording decisions 51
Reviewing decisions 52-53
Involving children and young people in making decisions 54-56
Advance care planning 57-61
Part 3:  Capacity issues 62-80
The legal framework 62-63 
Presumption of capacity 64-65
Maximising a patient's ability to make decisions 66-70
Assessing capacity 71-74
Making decisions when a patient lacks capacity 75-76
              Resolving disagreements 77-78
              The scope of treatment in emergencies 79
Legal annex
Common law  
Legislation  
Other sources of information and guidance