Capacity for treatment decisions in acute hospital inpatients

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Capacity for treatment decisions in acute hospital inpatients

• IRAS ID

  232086

• Contact name

  Gavin Davidson

• Contact email

  g.davidson@qub.ac.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  Queen's University Belfast

• Duration of Study in the UK

  0 years, 11 months, 30 days

• Research summary

  The Mental Capacity Act (Northern Ireland) was passed in 2016 and is yet to be enacted. The Act will introduce capacity legislation to Northern Ireland and will subsume the functions of Mental Health (Northern Ireland) Order 1986. It relates to health and welfare interventions and stipulates that compulsory intervention can only proceed when a person lacks decision making capacity and the proposed intervention is in his or her best interests. A process of planning for the implementation of the Act is currently underway.
  The Act will have a very wide remit. One of the areas where it will apply is the acute hospital. Previous international studies have shown the prevalence of incapacity in acute hospital patients is high (in the region of 40%), but there has been no local research. The new legislation in Northern Ireland makes this an opportune time to do a local study of this issue, and it is hoped that the results will inform the implementation process.
  The study aims to investigate the prevalence of incapacity to make treatment decisions in acute hospital inpatients. The study will take place in a large, urban teaching hospital and will include adults who are admitted to a medical ward and are proficient in English. For each person who participates the investigator will examine the medical notes, then mental capacity will be assessed - firstly using a semi structured tool and secondly using the criteria laid down in the new legislation. From this data an estimate of prevalence of incapacity in acute hospital inpatients will be made. There will be an examination of the correlation between the semi-structured capacity interview and the criteria for capacity in the 2016 Act, and also a comparison of clinical judgement of incapacity as recorded in the medical chart, with the study findings.

• REC name

  HSC REC B

• REC reference

  19/NI/0145

• Date of REC Opinion

  13 Sep 2019

• REC opinion

  Further Information Favourable Opinion