ICO Patient Information Leaflets and Guidelines on Best Practice for Patient Consent Process

The Irish College of Ophthalmologists has published guidelines on the consent process for its members and developed a series of patient information leaflets on a range of ophthalmic procedures in order to provide patients with clear and accessible information in advance of a proposed procedure.

The documents, launched at the ICO Winter Meeting in Dublin on December 1^st 2016, were developed by the ICO Ethics and Professional Standards Committee in recognition of the need to provide guidance to its members on best practice of the patient consent process for ophthalmic procedures.

The patient information leaflets outline the nature, purpose, risks and benefits of a proposed intervention for the most common eye conditions requiring treatment in the Irish health service.

Eye conditions covered in the new ICO patient information leaflets include cataract, wet age-related Macular degeneration (AMD), diabetic macular oedema, retinal vein occlusion, strabismus (squint) and glaucoma.

In order to ensure the information is accessible to all, the documents have also been produced in audio and Clear Print format, in collaboration with the NCBI, Ireland’s National Sight Loss Agency. 

To view the documents, please click on the below links:

ICO Patient Information Leaflets 

Guidelines on the Consent Process in Ophthalmology

1^st December 2016