Adult Social Care Glossary, v 0.6

A form of consent that is not expressly granted by a person, but rather inferred from a person's actions and the facts and circumstances of a particular situation (or in some cases, by a person's silence or inaction). The assumed agreement is that the person would approve a course of action if asked in a given situation, but is not presently able to be asked.

Only applies in the context of care provided to individuals (or actions that lead to the provision of care). Implied consent refers to instances where the consent of the individual patient can be implied, without them having to make any positive indication of their wishes, such as giving their verbal agreement for a specific aspect of sharing information to proceed.

An example of implied consent would be doctors and nurses sharing CPI during handovers without asking for the patient’s consent. Alternatively, a physiotherapist may access the record of a patient who has already accepted a referral before a face-to-face consultation.

To use implied consent, organisations must inform patients or service users of how their information may be used when providing services. Typically, this could be included in patient or service user information leaflets about a service, or as transparency information on their website about how the organisation uses personal and health and care data.

When you are not specifically asked if you agree to something being done to you, but you behave as if you understand and agree. For example, putting your arm out when a nurse or doctor comes to take a blood sample suggests 'implied consent' on your part. Implied consent also applies if you are unconscious in an emergency. Medical staff may assume that you would agree to treatment if it is necessary to save your life.