- Entitlement and access to public health care services
- Medical treatment: consent and withdrawal
- Advance Directives
- Taking care of a mentally incapacitated person: Guardianship or Committee
- Enduring Power of Attorney
- Elder abuse
- Medical negligence
- Medical insurance
- Care by residential care homes for elderly persons
Medical treatment: consent and withdrawal
Informed consent
An informed consent should be given voluntarily. The patient has to have the ability to make this decision and should be able to comprehend the information given by the medical practitioner well enough to understand the treatment or procedure: i.e. the nature, effect and risks of the proposed treatment and other options (including the option of no treatment).
Section 2.8 of the Code states:
“After the explanation, the patient should be given reasonable time to enable the patient (or his family members in applicable cases) to make the decision properly, depending on the complexity of information, the importance of the decision and the urgency of the proposed treatment.”
If the consent is given following incomplete and unsatisfactory advice, that consent could be of no effect.
