GMC Good Medical Practice in a nutshell

Capacity

Below is our selection of the best interactive cases from the GMC Good Medical Practice website regarding capacity. These cases take less than 5 minutes each - so go on, refresh your clinical knowledge.

In each case you can see how your decisions match up with the GMC guidance.

a) Severe learning disability

A young lady with severe learning disabilities presents to you with her mother. The young lady has very little speech and her mother explains that she has not been eating well and only taking small sips of water for the last 5 days. Her mother feels she may be in some kind of pain. What would you do?

http://www.gmc-uk.org/gmpinaction/case-studies/shannon/scenario-01/

b) Pelvic pain in a patient who is Deaf

A 35 year old lady is referred to O&G for ongoing pelvic pain. She is Deaf and although she can lip-read her preferred language is British Sign Language (BSL). She is deemed to need an exploratory laparotomy and your consultant has asked you to consent her for it- what would you do?

http://www.gmc-uk.org/gmpinaction/case-studies/amber/scenario-01/

c) Alzheimer's Disease

A 75 year old gentleman diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease a year ago presents to you with his daughter. He has abdominal pain that has not settled, but is adamant he does not want to go to hospital for investigations. What would you do?

http://www.gmc-uk.org/gmpinaction/case-studies/mr-hartley/scenario-01/

For more information regarding capacity please follow this link to GMC capacity guidance:

http://www.gmc-uk.org/guidance/ethical_guidance/consent_guidance_accessing_capacity.asp

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