Jonathan Beard, (Sheffield, UK), discusses the current medicolegal issues in the field and explains how vascular surgeons can become “the fall-guy for the inadequacies of other clinicians”. Beard touches on how the threshold for informed consent has changed “dramatically” in recent years which has led to “the death of medical paternalism”.
He also talks about how doctors can protect themselves from the increased risk of litigation and why a signed consent form “is not consent”. Beard emphasises that when paclitaxel devices are used, patients must be told there “may be an increased risk of mortality”.
