Every country has its own criteria for consent. In most, a written consent form is used to reflect patient understanding and permision for the procedure to happen.

While oral consent has as much legal sway as the written consent form, the presence of a signature acts as proof of discussion. All European hospitals should have a 100% compliance with patient’s signing consent forms, but their completion is often incomplete and inaccurate, have errors of omission and have lead to litigation, poor patient understanding and recall.

We (along witht the BOA) introduce an computer programme of procedure specific orthopaedic consent forms. They have been created for most common elective and trauma operations. The forms follow the UK Department of Health guidelines on consent and contain a brief explanation of the procedure, offer alternative therapies/consequences of not having the procedure (where appropriate), the serious risks and commonly occurring complications. They are written in layman’s English (aimed at a reading age of 14 years). Preliminary trials have also shown the time taken to print and complete a pre-designed form is much less than that of the current handwritten form, reducing errors of omission whilst still allowing discussion with the patient.

The forms are currently available as word documents from an easily navigable website. With a view towards European usage, the forms can be easily translated to other languages at minimal cost.

With support from the British Orthopaedic Association (BOA), the BOA medico-legal committee, the specialist societies and consultant users (via the website) we hope that the project will continue to evolve with a greater selection of procedural consent forms becoming available.

It is believed, from the evidence available, that this approach should decrease the incidence of patient misunderstanding, and the potential risk of successful litigation, while encouraging better communication between patients and surgeons.