Sustainability of medical imaging: To obtain informed consent from everyone is impossible

doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7449.1201-a

BMJ 2004;328:1201 (15 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7449.1201-a

Letter

Sustainability of medical imaging

To obtain informed consent from everyone is impossible

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—Picano asks the impossible in suggesting signedinformed consent for radiological examinations.¹ To obtain consentfor every x ray examination, you need prepared information sheetsand forms and some staff experience. Then consider the factorof time.

Allow half a minute each for introducing the documents to thepatient, retrieving and checking the forms, fielding averagequestions, and filing the paperwork. That's two minutes foruncomplicated, intelligent, unquestioning patients who haveremembered their reading glasses. Now multiply this time bytwo or three to allow for incomprehension, obtuseness, terror,etc.

Who will obtain consent? A receptionist? No, because questionson radiation demand scientific understanding. A radiographer,perhaps? How many radiographers have we to spare (let us noteven consider radiologists)?

How many people are needed to take consent? A medium sized districtgeneral hospital undertakes 100 000 x ray examinations annually,so at least 200 000 minutes (3300 . . . [Full text of this article]

Mark Lewars, consultant radiologist

Southend Hospital NHS Trust, Westcliff on Sea SS0 0RY Mark.Lewars@southend.nhs.uk