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.