What is it about this process that requires you or any doctor at all? I
would have thought a yellow pages thrust into his hands to find a solicitor
is what he needs.
We have this peculiar idea that once someone has crossed our threshold we
have suddenly become responsible for all aspects of their lives, however
incompetently we may do it. Would you expect a solicitor to try to intubate
someone who has collapsed in his office? No, he'd call for professional
help. Don't be afraid to do likewise.
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[log in to unmask]Subject: Wills in the ED
Had a bit of an issue cropped up the other day with a patient coming in,
dying but lucid and who wanted to draw up a will. Has anyone come across
this, and what do you do? It's not an easy one to google for (as "will" is
too common a word, but nothing else seems to work). However I can see
potential issues about someone's capacity to make a new will while in the
ED; and while I can see it from the patient's point of view I don't want to
get our most senior staff (or myself coming in in the early hours) tied up
with assessment and documentation of capacity if it's avoidable. I did find
one article about testamentary capacity pointing out that this is a legal
term that we shouldn't use without being pretty sure of our grounds, and
that it is very different to capacity to consent to a procedure.
Matt
Dunn
Warwick