One of my patients today told me a terrible story of her experience undergoing surgery. I’m not going to recount any of that here of course, but she made such a good point to me I thought I’d share it with you. Maybe you agree?
She said, whenever a drug is prescribed, even if the doctor doesn’t go into a lot of detail about the possible benefits and potential harms, when you pick up the medicine from the pharmacy, the packaging contains a pretty comprehensive description of the product, including a list of the known, potential harms. This, she said, allows a person to make a fairly informed choice about whether or not to take the drug. However, there don’t seem to be any such leaflets available about surgical procedures.
Why not? she asked. There are “generic” potential harms – anaesthetic risks, infection risks and so on – which could easily be desribed, and then, surely there are known “specific” risks related to the intended procedure. Couldn’t the Royal College of Surgeons organise its members to develop comprehensive written information to be given to any patient before an intended procedure? Wouldn’t that allow a more properly informed consent?
I think this is SUCH a good idea. I’m not aware that such a thing exists at the moment. If it does, could you point me to it?
Thank you
