Rights of patients
When carrying out medical activities, it is necessary to explain the rights and obligations not only to patients, but also to the attending physicians. This practice will allow in the future avoiding many conflicts and disputes arising in the field of medical services.
With it, the patient should be clearly and easily explained his or her rights when providing him or her with medical care and services.
Thus, the patient has the right to:
- conducting medical advice at the proper level by a qualified doctor;
- obtaining complete and reliable information regarding his health, including the patient must have access to medical documents;
- information about the need to receive medical care, in accuracy and volume, which will make it possible to make an informed decision on the conduct or refusal of medical intervention;
- consent or refusal to medical intervention;
- compensation for negative health consequences due to improper treatment, doctor’s mistakes, violation of his rights as a patient.
Patient’s representative
There are situations when the patient is not able to independently exercise his or her rights in full. In such cases, his or her authorized person – a representative – represents the interests and monitors the observance of the patient’s rights. According to the current Civil Code, representatives of patients can be individuals whose powers are determined by law (legal representatives), as well as those who received them directly from the patient.
Legal representatives include parents, guardians, trustees or representatives of those institutions or organizations, under whose guardianship or custody the patient is currently located. Legal representatives represent the interests of disabled or minor patients.
The second group includes representatives whose powers are confirmed by a power of attorney or contract. In this case, these documents must be drawn up properly. Thus, the power of attorney must be notarized, and the contract must be signed by both the patient and the representative.
Scope of basic rights and obligations of legal representatives
Legal representatives have a much greater scope of rights than contractual representatives. Thus, for example, legal representatives have the right to make decisions in the patient’s interests when medical intervention is necessary. If medical intervention is necessary for a patient under the age of 14, the legal representative must independently consent to such procedures. In the case of patients between the ages of 14 and 18, the consent of the legal representative is required together with the personal consent of the patient.
The second most important among the rights of a patient that a legal representative can have is the right to refuse medical intervention. Here it should be taken into account that even if the patient is 14 years old and he can consent to medical procedures, the right to independently refuse medical intervention in a person arises only upon reaching the age of majority.
In addition, legal representatives have another range of rights that they exercise in the patient’s interests: in particular, the choice of a medical institution, a doctor, methods of diagnosis, prevention, etc.