The Sunday News
According to the Clients Charter
Patients have the right to health care and humane treatment.
Every individual shall have access to competent health care and treatment regardless of age, sex, ethnic origin, religion, political affiliation, economic status or social class.
Health care services shall be available on the basis of clinical need regardless of the ability to pay. It shall be the responsibility of the Government to ensure that every person has access to essential health services.
Every patient shall be treated with care, consideration, respect and dignity, without discrimination of any kind, including vulnerable groups such as children, women, people with physical challenges, and rural dwellers, taking into consideration issues of accessibility to both physical structures and information.
All drugs and vaccines shall be of acceptable standards in terms of quality, efficacy and safety.
In an emergency, every individual shall have the right to prompt treatment from the nearest medical/health facility.
A child admitted to hospital shall, whenever possible, have the right to the company of a parent or guardian.
Confidentiality: A patient shall have the right for the details of the patient’s care (including the use of new technology) prognosis and all communication and other records relating to the patient’s care to be treated as con?dential, unless: Release is authorised in writing by the patient. It is undesirable on medical grounds to seek a patient’s consent, but it is in the patient’s own interest that confdentiality be broken.
The information is required by due legal process.
Privacy: Patients shall be interviewed, examined and treated in surroundings designed to ensure reasonable privacy and shall have the right to be accompanied during any physical examination or treatment if they so wish.
Right to choice of care: A patient shall have the right to a second opinion at any time while consulting the same medical or health care delivery system. A patient or next of kin shall have the right to an explanation about their case history and medical records, and to have them explained. The patient or next of kin shall also have the right to authorise in writing for another health professional to obtain a copy of the medical records and to inform him or her of what they contain.
If a patient’s health professional refuses to allow another health professional to be called in, or breaches any other provisions of this charter, the patient shall have the right to seek alternative service/care or to take the issue up with the Health Professions Council.
Right to safety: A patient, if not incapacitated, shall have the right to a clear, concise explanation — in lay terms — of the proposed procedure and of any available alternative procedure, before any treatment or investigation. The explanation shall incorporate information on risks, side-effects, problems relating to recuperation, likelihood of success, risk of death and whether the proposed procedure to be administered is an investigation.
Right to adequate information and consent: A patient shall have the right to know the identity and professional status of the individuals providing service to the patient and to know which health professional is primarily responsible for his or her care, including-The right to adequate and coherent information on prescribed and purchased medicines.
To ensure that informed consent is not obtained under duress or from a patient in a dependent relationship to a health professional, the informed consent shall be obtained by a health professional who is not engaged in the investigation and who is completely independent of the official relationship between the patient and the health professional responsible for the research. In the case of a child, informed consent shall be obtained from the parent or guardian. —Source-Ministry of Health and Child Care
