Preoperative consent: how to make sure your practice is legal--Part one.

Perioperative practitioners encounter consent issues constantly in their practice, both in terms of the main procedure listed and procedures they will undertake personally to enable the main procedure to be carried out safely. The law on consent has previously been governed by case (common) law but is now also partly governed by the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) (HMSO 2005). The onus is on practitioners to ensure that their practice is legal. This article and the subsequent companion article aim to emphasise the key legal points.