Fallas de los procedimientos y del consentimiento informado en Colombia

Abstract

Informed Consent is understood as the free acceptance by a patient of a diagnostic or therapeutic act, after having properly informed him of his clinical situation. The patient should be able to decide according to his own values and priorities, which may or may not coincide with those of the physician. There are elements of Informed Consent that are: information clear, truthful, timely, relevant, voluntariness, and responsibility. Despite this there are flaws in medical procedures and also in Informed Consent; for example if the doctor decides to perform a procedure without giving clarity to the patient about its consequences, incurs a service failure and ends up taking the risks of intervention. The civil liability of the doctor is that under which the patient - victim can demand from the doctor compensation for the physical, moral and/or psychological damages caused during the exercise of the medical profession. In Colombia there are two models of informed consent, the generic one that is used in the provision of the medical service in a so-called relationship of means and the specific one in which a medical service of results is offered.