Montgomery in, Bolam out: are trainee surgeons ‘material risks’ when taking consent for cataract surgery?

• Published in: Eye (London) Vol. 34; no. 8; pp. 1334 - 1340
• Main Authors: Qadir, M. Omar, Abdallah, Yusuf, Mulholland, Helen, Masood, Imran, Vernon, Stephen A., Madge, Simon N.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 01-08-2020; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 692/1537; 692/308; Cataract; Cataract Extraction; Cataracts; Consent; Eye surgery; Humans; Informed Consent; Laboratory Medicine; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Ophthalmology; Pharmaceutical Sciences/Technology; Review; Review Article; Surgeons; Surgery; Surgical Oncology; United Kingdom > UK
• ISSN: 0950-222X; 1476-5454
• DOI: 10.1038/s41433-020-0785-4

Trainee involvement in cataract surgery is vital to allow proper training of the next generation of ophthalmic surgeons. However, recent changes in the UK Law, coupled with open publication of National Cataract Dataset results, lead us to conclude that the status of being a trainee is itself a material risk that now needs to be divulged to patients during the consent process. The opinions of current trainee surgeons in the UK were sampled via questionnaire and clinical negligence counsel was involved in the authorship of the paper in order to analyse the legal issues at stake. Attitudes towards consent regarding trainee involvement in UK cataract surgery need to change.