Sidaway v Board of Governors of the Bethlem Royal Hospital [1985] AC 871 is an important House of Lords case in English tort law, specifically medical negligence, concerning the duty of a surgeon to inform a patient of the risks before undergoing an operation.
It has largely been overturned by Montgomery v Lanarkshire Health Board, which determined that there is a duty on doctors to take reasonable care to ensure that a patient is aware of material risks inherent in treatment.
Rejecting her claim for damages, the court held that consent did not require an elaborate explanation of remote side effects.
In dissent, Lord Scarman said that the Bolam test should not apply to the issue of informed consent and that a doctor should have a duty to tell the patient of the inherent and material risk of the treatment proposed.
Lord Diplock stated "we are concerned here with volunteering unsought information about risks of the proposed treatment failing to achieve the result sought or making the patient’s physical or mental condition worse rather than better.