The Government have demonstrated the importance they attach to allowing people to make their own decisions about health care by including provisions for advance decisions to refuse treatment in the Mental Capacity Act (MCA). Such advance decisions are currently sometimes called living wills. The Government’s intention have always been to allow as much flexibility as possible for those making advance decisions and, therefore, there is no standard form for an advance decision. This makes issues around the formal registration of advance decisions complicated.
The MCA code of practice recommends that people think about whether they want their health care record to reflect that they have made an advance decision. We will consider the practicalities of how this option might be realised within the context of the new national health service care records service.