MTP4.13 Paper Trail vs. Digital Consent: A Comparative Analysis in a general surgical department

Aim To identify the number of patients undergoing surgical procedures from 1/12/2023 to 15/1/2024 and collect their consent information, compare the data to identify patients who signed the paper and concentric e consents, date and circumstances of the consents obtained. Methods All patients who underwent surgery in general surgery from 1/12/23 to 15/1/24 except consent 4. Included both the elective and emergency patients. All UGI and colorectal surgeries were included and all patients on CEPOD list. Breast surgery not included. Results Total number of patients involved in this audit is 194 patients,The source of listing is from wards, SDEC, ED and clinic Type of consent Econsent47%93Paper54%101 Consent at time of listing No54%105Yes38%74Unknown7%15 Conclusion Majority of the patients who had e consents done were from the emergency settings. Only 18 patients who attended the clinic had e consents done, which is around 24 %. 8.7 % of all patients were consented at the time of listing, prior to the surgery. The aim to move into digital consent is paramount in multiple ways as detailed earlier however there lack of significant number of consents being done in clinic needs to be identified. Whether it could be secondary to lack of infrastructure like medium to consent, internet connectivity among others. Also alternate options to identify areas where we could manage to send this consent across eg; closer to approximate date for surgery or after pre op assessment.