Council Warns Doctors On Implied Consent

Dr. Emmanuel Osuagwu, the Assistant Registrar of the Medical and Dental Council (MDCN) of Nigeria, has advised doctors not to exceed the limits of implied consent.

Osuagwu gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Wednesday.

According to him, implied consent is one that is not expressly granted by a person, but rather inferred from actions or circumstances.

He cited the example of an unconscious person who obviously needed medical help.

“No surgeon should be in the habit of routinely exceeding the limit of their patient’s presumed consent,” he said.

Osuagwu explained that a doctor’s assumption that a particular action would have been approved by his patient if permission had been sought was not valid.

He said because doctors were few in the past, many of them took decisions on what they thought was best for their patients without seeking permission.

According to Osuagwu, who is also a lawyer, the era of doctors taking uninformed decisions for their patients had passed as even written consent could be disputed in law.

He, however, said that a doctor could only presume consent during emergencies.

“Consent is implied by law in specific situations like medical emergencies. For example, when a person is involved in a car accident, when the person is unconscious, or when a different finding is discovered during surgery.

“In such situations, the doctor is expected to act in the best interest of the patient,” he said.

Osuagwu also said that in a situation where a doctor made a discovery during surgery that was not life threatening, he could not take a decision for his patient.

He explained that any written or spoken consent obtained under compulsion either by the action or words of the doctor was not consent and could be disputed in court.