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November 21, 2004

The rights of patients

Patients' rights can be seen as social rights and as individual rights. As social rights, they cover aspects such as the quality and accessibility of health care. As individual rights they relate to basic human and consumer rights.

Increasingly, consumers are being asked to take on more and more responsibility for their own health care. They are being mncouraged to adopt healthy lifestyles that help to prevent many illnesses. They are becoming more active in the treatment of illness, rather than being the passive recipients of therapy. They are also being asked to burden more of the direct costs of heal|h care, oftmn paying fees for services, which previously weze covered by go~ernment funds, or by purchasing the medicines they require.

With this increased responsibility, there must also be increased recognition of the rights of consumers of health care. Efforts are now underway in many countries to develop a more balanced partnership between health care providers doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other health workers and the people who use those services the citizens, the consumers, the patients.

Part of improving the relationship between health care providers and users of the services has been the development of Charters for Patients' Rights. For patients, such charters provide a valuable instrument in their campaigns for greater equality and participation in the care of their health. For health workers, a charter serves as a guideline to assist in further strengthening professional codes of ethics and conduct.

Although patients' rights are universal, their implementation and |he specific content of their declarations are likely to vary from country to country. Some of the key issues that need to be addressed in any declaration of patients' rights include:
*the right to health care
*access to information
*choice
*participation and representation
*respect for human dignity and the right to humane care
*the right to confidentiality
*the right to redress for grievances

Source: Consumers International, UK.