BMJ 1999;318:640-641 ( 6 March )

Papers

Patients' and doctors' attitudes to amount of information given after unintended injury during treatment: cross sectional, questionnaire survey

Melanie Hingorani, specialist registrar,  Tina Wong, senior house officer,  Gilli Vafidis, consultant. 

Central Eye Unit, Central Middlesex Hospital, London NW10 7NS

Correspondence to: Mrs Hingorani

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

Unintended injuries (adverse events) caused during treatment are much more common than previously believed.¹ Recent legal and disciplinary cases have shown that, although patients are increasingly dissatisfied with a perceived lack of openness in the medical profession, doctors are not legally obliged to provide an explanation after an adverse event.² Because of this, the General Medical Council has revised its guidance on good medical practice, stating that after an adverse event a full and honest explanation and an apology should be provided routinely.³ We surveyed patients' and doctors' attitudes to the provision of information to patients after a hypothetical adverse event in cataract surgery.

	Subjects, methods, and results

A specifically designed questionnaire (box) was used to survey all patients attending a consultant ophthalmologist's clinic during five weeks in 1998; 246 of 302 (81%) patients agreed to participate. All 48 ophthalmologists attending a regional meeting also participated. The questionnaire asked about the postoperative information that should be given . . . [Full text of this article]

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