PATIENTS, KNOW YOUR RIGHTS

Have you ever been hurt while receiving medical treatment, after ingesting the wrong or fake drug and after undergoing a surgery? Did you just accept your fate as an act of God? Gone are the days when Doctors were regarded as ‘supermen’ and their judgment on health matters was accepted without question. Now, experts are saying that since it is difficult to prove all cases of medical malpractice, patients must begin to know their rights. In the absence of this, the Doctor’s actions, or inaction, may worsen their health. Also, they say that physicians can no longer treat their patients nor subject them to some medical procedure without their consent.

A consultant mental health physician and specialist in medical law in a Neuro-psychiatric Teaching Hospital says more than 90 per cent of patients, especially in a developing country are aware of just five per cent of their medical rights. However, this trend is about to change, following increasing access to medical information on the internet. Doctors must be made to realize that they cannot continue to give treatment  to their clients without informing them about the dangers and risks involved. According to research it is not only negligence or malpractices that lead to disability or death in some cases that can be contested. Patients should always remember that they can seek redress from the appropriate authorities, if certain rights, as stated below, are infringed by medical personnel.

\BAD ATTITUDE OR RUDE BEHAVIOUR

The medical litigation expert says patients can hold doctors liable for any treatment given in a rude or insolent manner in any hospital. Many doctors often become so familiar with their patients that they forget to be courteous or seek verbal consent from them. Nurses and other health workers are not exempted. The principal doctor, or a hospital could be sued for assault as a result of the actions of their members of staff. In litigation, according to a practitioner, for assault, a doctor or the hospital cannot feign ignorance that they are not aware that their staff spoke rudely or offered poor care to a patient. The hospital will be held responsible for any misdeed of intern, resident or junior colleague in its employ. This is not the time for you to tolerate a rude member of staff or to condone indiscipline.

NON-DISCLOSURE OR LACK OF WRITTEN CONSENT

Practitioners note that a doctor can be sued for not disclosing the risks and adverse effects of a treatment or surgery to a patient under many laws in the medical practice, patients can sue, if they are made to observe any medical procedure without consenting to it, especially in cases that are not emergencies. A doctor must seek a written consent from a patient before some operations that will lead to irreversible changes, or consequences in his life are carried out. On Non-disclosure, practitioners says, a doctor could be sued if a patient claims not to understand clearly the risks and success of the treatment they are about to be offered. This is for the women and their gynaecologists. A woman once sued her doctor because her contraception failed. She claimed that her doctor did not fully disclose to her the failure rate. The doctor was held liable for the cost of the pregnancy, and God help him, if the baby is not healthy, he may also have to bear the cost of the baby’s medical treatment. If a drug will lead to dementia or hypertension, let the patients know and agree to take it. The society is becoming more complicated. So patients must assume their risks clearly now.

DOCTORS AND PATIENT’S CONFIDENTIALITY (DISCLOSING HEALTH INFORMATION)

This is the aspect of patients’ right that is mostly violated by doctors, nurses and other health workers. According to practitioner, by law, except in cases of litigation or danger, doctors may not disclose information on the health of their patients to anyone without their consent, they says this is the trickiest one. You cannot disclose information about the health of a wife to the husband without her consent and vice versa. A woman or man will only tell you how many sexual partners they have because they trust you to stick the code of ethics and if it comes out they know they can hold you liable.

MAINTAIN YOUR CAR WITH LESS EXPENSES

Car that is properly maintained will last long; cars quickly worsen when they are not given adequate maintenances. With this tips you can give your car a befitting management.

Firstly, before anything there is need to check the status of your car before driving, CHANGE VITAL FLUID (OIL).

It is important to change your car’s fluids doing regular service intervals. Experts says car fluids degrade when they are driven as well as when they are packed; each fluid in a car is vital to the long-term health of the engine, transmission, steering or brakes.  Simply keeping the fluids topped off is not always okay for proper car maintenances. This is because over time they lose important properties. The properties that can be lost include the ability of the oil to remove heat and lubricate, as well as the ability to prevent rust and freezing in your car. Some of the fluids in cars include transmission, differential, brake and power-steering fluid and engine oil. Other fluids like the windshield washer fluids, experts says are not too important in a car, regular transmission and differential fluid changes are often overlooked, but this service is very important. Automobile dealers says you should follow recommendations of the manufacturer when changing your car fluids; you should adopt the time duration prescribed by the manufacturer. Fresh clean transmission fluid assures that your car’s drive-train stays cool and uncontaminated.

REMOVE UNNECESSARY WEIGHT

This places extra demands on your car engine. Experts says, creates suspension braking and even exhaust problems; extra weight adds stress to critical systems and causes premature wear; know that your car weight and should not hesitate to put out things that are not needed, things that cause additional drag should be removed, as aerodynamic drag is similar to adding weight, which it increases the demand on your engine. Take the cargo carrier off the top of the minivan if it does not serve any meaningful purpose there. This may be fanciful, but experts note that it’s killing your fuel mileage and making your engine work harder and may end up grounding your car.

DRIVE CAREFULLY

When you drive, do your car a favour by driving gently; common sense will tell the driver that he is not just doing the car a favour but himself and occupants of the car whenever he drives carefully. Think of your car like your own body by driving carefully, note that the driver should accelerate slowly, not snapping his head back; driving carefully means anticipating your braking so you can brake gently and avoid panic stops. If it’s below cold outside, the driver should allow the car a minute or so to warm up before driving it hard. First drive slowly for some few minutes, until the engine oil has warmed up and started to fully lubricate all the components of the car, for new cars, experts says the car owner should follow the break-in recommendations in the owner’s manual. They note that it is advisable to change your car’s oil after the car has covered its inaugural 1,000 miles when used.

FIX FAULT AS QUICK AS POSSIBLE

When you identify a small problem with your car, get it checked out sooner rather than later, don’t procrastinate or delay in getting that little problem solved, though, you might end up at the side of the road not able to drive and forced to seek the help of tow vans to take your car home, there are many problems that start small but develop into much bigger faults if they are not addressed right away. Experts says that you make sure your car is safe to drive. They note that if you have any doubts about such things as brakes, brake lines, ball joints, tie rods, airbags, seat belts or even the structural integrity of your car, get it checked out.

HAVE A TRUSTWORTHY MECHANIC

Find a mechanic you can trust intuitively, you should think of maintaining your car as a partnership between you and your mechanic. Pay him well in order to get your car working perfectly; having a good working relationship with your mechanic will enable you to make wise decisions when the time comes. And it will make you not to have nagging doubts about the truthfulness of what you are being told. According to automobile mechanics, the need to develop this relationship is very vital. They note that when you find someone you think you like, ask for recommendations from longtime customers and you may end up getting the right person to work for you.

DEBT MANAGEMENT

Some debts do make financial sense. Mortgages will usually work out less expensive than renting and is a good financial investment in whole. Interest free credit is about as close to good debts as it comes, any debt with high interest rates should be the first to go. A student loan comes with very little interest added and this can be left until last. Prioritized debts into high interest rate debts and work down the list with the lowest interest debts left until last. Any debts that come with high penalty charges for late payments should be cleared as soon as possible.

Always be wary of clearing debts that come with penalty charges for early payment. Early repayment charges can be equal to a couple of month’s normal repayments. Debts such as higher purchase agreements that come with very little or interest rate free should also be left until last.

Many people do make debt repayments and contribute to a savings account at the same time one of the major disadvantages of doing this is that money is being continually wasted on interest payments. Debt interest payments will eat more in money than can be earned in interest in a savings account. Clearing interest accumulating debts first before building a savings account does make financial sense. Banks encourage people to spend more than they encourage them to save. But having a savings account and debts is an equal situation for banks and lenders. Having savings means the customer is lending the bank money at a much poorer interest rate than if the bank lends the customer money. The customer who saves is giving the bank a great lending deal but this does not work the other way round.

Banks and Lenders will say the opposite but it makes sense to keep customers in debt for as long as possible. Banks and lenders love customers who only make minimum repayments as this means they are paying interest for the longest time period. Customers who make minimum repayments can spend decades paying of their credit cards. Customers who incur late and missed payment penalty fees are also seriously adding to the lender’s profits. Anyone who is considering creating a savings fund should know one of the most important principals. The wisest route to take is to clear debts before building up any savings.

Having an emergency savings fund is important but more money will be available if debts are cleared first. Savings are savings it doesn’t matter if it is a regular savings account or an emergency saving fund. Clearing off interest accruing debts will leave more disposable income in the future, which means savings can be build up quickly when debts are cleared. Saving before debts are cleared simply means the customer is contributing to the bank’s profits. A savings fund should be left until a debt free status has been achieved. Unless there are some circumstances where by the consumer has mostly all zero or very low interest debts this should be the case. It simply makes financial sense to clear off interest accruing debts and then build up a savings fund. Many people actually save money with banks from which they are heavily in debt to. This does not make any sense as the customer with savings is, in effect, borrowing their own savings and being charged interest on it.