Comment of the day on "Consent" in OPD

One can do a consent in the OPD for smaller procedures, but for major surgery you need to set some time to do it properly. Also, if there is a time gap between the date of consent and surgery it is good practice to counter sign the original form again on the day of the surgery with the date(both by patient and the surgeon). If this is not done the patient may claim that too much information was given in the OPD and he did not understand/remember all of it. Having standard printed copies of information leaflets for all common procedures and giving them to every pre-op patient will save you one day. But one should record 'information leaflet given'. .......Saaj Rajendran(Barnet Hospital,Calicut)