Informed consent and the JHO in Scotland

To define the views of junior house-officers (JHOs) concerning consent for general surgical conditions.

Questionnaire-based descriptive study on two cohorts of JHOs, separated by 3 years of major national and local directives.

From the JHO perspective: (i) there has been a shift away from the JHO being the main signatory, (ii) many JHOs (58% in 2000; 47% in 2003) feel unsupported with respect to obtaining consent, (iii) knowledge concerning any consultant/unit's complication rates was poor (<30%), (iv) knowledge concerning complication rates for several paradigm procedures was also poor, though it improved from 2000 to 2003, (v) there is no formal training in consent.

Despite the JHO group of 2003 outperforming that of 2000, there is major scope for improvement from patient, legal, educational and risk-management perspectives.