A patient has the right to know all the rates charged for specific services in a hospital, hospitals should boldly display the cost of procedures in local and English language and patients should pay the fees agreed upon and never resort to violence.
These are some of the points in a detailed charter of patients’ rights that the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare wants all the State governments to adopt.
Raising a red flag on malpractices in hospitals across the country, Ministry Secretary Preeti Sudan, in a June 2 circular, asked all the States and Union Territories to adopt the charter so that the common grievances of patients and clinical establishments are addressed.
The circular said the government had been receiving many complaints of malpractices in clinical establishments, particularly in large corporate hospitals such as billing of arbitrary and exorbitant charges, gross deficiency in services provided, not following standard treatment protocol, total lack of transparency in diagnosis and treatment, forcing patients to avail diagnostic services and purchase of medicines, consumables and implants from some select vendors, etc.
NHRC shares draft with Ministry
Taking a cue from these complaints, the National Human Rights Commission had shared a draft of patients’ rights charter with the Ministry and it was discussed at the 11th meeting of the National Council of Clinical Establishments, an apex statutory body consisting of representatives of all major stakeholders.
“The national council recommended a set of Do’s and Don’t’s for patients and clinical establishments so that the fundamental grievances and concerns are addressed”, the circular said.
The charter lists 13 rights of patients, including the right to seek a second opinion with investigation reports provided by the treating hospital, the right to the presence of a female during examination of a female patient by a male practitioner, right to non-discrimination about treatment and behaviour on the basis of HIV status, or other health condition, religion, ethnicity, gender age, sexual orientation etc., right to informed consent before digitisation of medical records, right to access case papers, patient records, investigation reports, detailed bill etc. The charter also lists six responsibilities of patients that include providing accurate health history, pay hospital fees agreed upon, respect the dignity of doctors and other hospitals staff and never resort to violence.
The Secretary also spoke about the reluctance and resistance from States to adopt the Clinical Establishment (Registration and Regulation) Act, 2010 enacted by the Centre to regulate medical set-ups. “The reasons include reluctance and stiff resistance by lobbies of clinical establishments to come under the regulatory framework of this Act”, she stated.
According to Dr. Abhijit More, co-convenor of Jan Swasthya Abhiyan, the Clinical Establishment Act should be implemented uniformly in the country so that the charter is effective in its true sense. “We have been rooting for the Act for a long time”, he said.
