Consenting for your operation or procedure

All patients must give their consent before they receive any type of medical treatment or operation.

Giving consent means giving your permission to have a treatment, operation, test, or examination.

Your doctor will explain what will happen during the operation or procedure and talk about the benefits, risks, and alternatives. 

You should ask them any questions you have so that after the conversation, you can make an informed decision about whether to have the operation or procedure.

We will ask you to give your consent using a digital application called Concentric. This secure application provides you with personalised information about your procedure and reminds you of the benefits, risks, and alternatives that your doctor discussed with you.

How the consent application works

Your doctor or nurse will send you a secure link to the application, by text message or email, before your operation or procedure takes place, so that you can read the information in your own time at home and provide a digital signature.

To access the form and information, you will need to add your date of birth.

You can then spend time reading all the information. If you are ready to consent, you can click the ‘I am ready to give consent’ option. 

You will then see a summary page, and you can sign the digital document, either using your mouse, or your finger on a touch screen device.

After you have signed the document, you will see a confirmation page, which you can download into a PDF file and keep for your own record. 

You can also always go back and review your consent form, by clicking the link provided in the original text message or email that was sent to you.

If you need support when consenting 

If you or your doctor prefers, they will share the consent form on screen at either a face to face or virtual appointment. If you are happy, you will be asked to scan a QR code using your mobile phone or device, which will direct you to an online web page, where you can provide your signature.

Alternatively, if you do not have a mobile phone or device, you can sign the online form using the doctor or nurse's computer, or we can provide a paper version of the consent form. If you sign the form during your appointment, your doctor or nurse can still send you a link, to the completed form, by email or text message, so that you can view the information at home.

Our consent process ensures you have:

 

On the day of your operation or procedure

On the day of your operation or procedure, your nurse or doctor will ask you to re-confirm your consent.

Consenting for another person

We recognise that not all patients are able to provide consent for their own operation or procedure, this includes patients who are under the age of 18, or adults who do not have capacity to decide for themselves.

If an adult patient does not have a carer or family member who has Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA), the doctor is able to consent on the patient’s behalf.

A parent or carer of a patients who is aged 18 or under can consent for the procedure or surgery using the application Concentric.

For patients who do not have capacity to decide for themselves, we will use a paper consent form.

You can find more information about consent and consenting for another person on the NHS website