Keeping this in mind, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) has recently released a ‘Charter of Patients Rights’ that compiles the lawful rights as stated in the Constitution of India. Here is the list:
1. Right to Information
Physicians or their qualified assistants are required to provide adequate information about your illness, its diagnosis (provisional or confirmed, as it may be), proposed investigation and possible complications to the patient. If the patient is not in a state to understand this, the physician or their assistant is required to provide the information to the caretaker.This has to be done in a simple language that the patient or caretaker will understand.
Apart from this, patients have the right to know the identity and professional status of every doctor and assistant as well as the primary doctor who is treating them.
Information regarding costs of treatment needs to be given in writing.
2. Right to records and reports
Patients or their respective caretakers have the right to access the originals or copies of case papers, indoor patient records and investigation reports. Investigation reports have to be made available to them within 24 hours of admission or 72 hours of discharge.
The hospital is responsible for providing a discharge summary or a death summary, in the case of a death, to the caretakers or kin of the patient with original copies of investigations.
3. Right to emergency medical care
4. Right to informed consent
If a hospital decides upon carrying an invasive investigation or surgery or chemotherapy on a patient, they require to do so after completing an appropriate policy procedure. The doctor primarily in charge of a patient has to explain the risks, consequences and procedure of the investigation or surgery in detail and a simple language before providing the protocol consent form to the patient or to the responsible caretaker.
5. Right to confidentiality, human dignity and privacy
Now this one is a fairly known right, especially if you follow TV shows about hospitals or doctors. The code of ethics dictates doctors to hold information about the illness and treatment plan for the patient in strict confidentiality from everyone except the patient and their caretakers.
Unless it is an exceptional case where sharing this information is “in the interest of protecting other or due to public health considerations.”
In the case of a female patient, she has the right to demand the presence of another woman if the medical practitioner checking or treating her is male. Having said this, the hospital is responsible for upholding the dignity of every patient, irrespective of their gender.
Hospital staff and doctors are responsible for clarifying all treatment options to the patient/caretakers. After a thorough study of their choices, the patient/caretakers can choose to opt for a treatment that may or may not be the doctor’s primary recommendation. This also means that once the patient/caretakers choose this alternative treatment, they will shoulder the responsibility of its consequences
9. Right to a second opinion
Doctors and the hospital must respect your decision if you choose to seek a second opinion from a doctor/hospital of your choice. They are responsible for handing over all record documents and other relevant information should you choose to approach a different doctor. The hospital can neither stop you nor discourage you from going elsewhere, only give a detailed explanation of the health condition and repercussions in case of delay in treatment.
In case you choose to come back to the first hospital after getting your second opinion, the hospital still cannot compromise on the quality of healthcare services.
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10. Right to transparency in rates, and care according to prescribed rates wherever relevant
As mentioned above, the patient has the right to have a written account of the costs they will have to bear for the treatment they are receiving. As evidence for this, hospitals are required to have printed brochures and prominent display boards bearing the names and rates of medical procedures that are available with them. Detailed schedules of key rates need to be displayed in conspicuous places and need to be in both, English as well as the local language.
Patients have the right to get medicines, devices and implants at rates decided by the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) and other relevant authorities. Patients have the right to receive health care services that cost within the range prescribed by the Central and State governments, at the time of receiving it.
In case a patient is involved in a biomedical or health research procedure, their consent needs to be taken in a written format. Their right to dignity, privacy and confidentiality needs to be upheld even during the research. If the participant suffers direct physical, psychological, social, legal or economic harm, they are eligible for financial or other assistance by the hospital.
Whatever benefits the hospital gets from the research must be made available to relevant individuals, communities and the general population.
from a particular doctor/assistant.
The MoHFW further adds, ” Patients and caregivers have the right to seek redressal in case they are aggrieved, on account of infringement of any of the above-mentioned rights in this charter. This may be done by lodging a complaint with an official designated for this purpose by the hospital/healthcare provider and further with an official mechanism constituted by the government such as Patients’ rights Tribunal Forum or Clinical establishments regulatory authority as the case may be.
(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)
അഭിപ്രായങ്ങളൊന്നുമില്ല:
ഒരു അഭിപ്രായം പോസ്റ്റ് ചെയ്യൂ