There is another thing that is bothering me. ST6 doctors for example doing the legwork/assessments for treatment certificates so that the RC can then complete/certify consent on a CTO12 - and as the treatment forms quite rightly do not say 'personally seen/examined) is this particular practice acceptable?
Most people won’t like my response because I’ve been there before with this sort of issue.
Law is not normally designed to instruct individuals to do every bit and piece of what ought to be done.
Forms mean only one thing: that there is a record that something has been done. The evidence of the actual duty being performed is always to be in the records. But…I am alone in that one except for my compatriots the MHACOP, MDU and GMC. Not many people are so associated so they hold on to ‘forms’ being ‘the thing’.
ST6 (and similar) are trainees. If they are doing ‘legwork/assessments’ so that 'the RC can then complete/certain consent on a CTO12 or any other sort of similar form, then it is for the RC to ensure that the ‘legwork/assessments’ are done to standards requried by the General Medical Council. But then nobody I know except me reads the GMC standards daily or weekly or even monthly. So ‘nobody’ (except me) knows exactly what is required.
So because I don’t like sitting on fences, I dare to say overall ‘this particular practice’ is unacceptable as a starting point. Why? It has nothing to do with forms and legwork. It is about ensuring the letter of the law and regulatory requirments are carried out. If that’s the case - which is almost never the case from my long experience, then in a rare instance it may be acceptable. [I do not know details of the situation, so I form a view based on what’s on the page].