5147 - Patient's rights: Where do we stand?

Background

Patient rights has been developed from human rights. Human rights emerged from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Declaration is a milestone document in the history of human rights (1). Today the patient’s rights have become an important issue on the political agenda. Individual’s awareness of their own rights in the health area is constantly increasing. Patient’s rights are becoming primary concern in improving quality of health care (2). Today the patient becomes the consumer (3). The most important role that nurses have is delivering quality care for the patients and also act as patient advocates. Nurses must understand the importance of patient rights. The main aim of the survey is to analyze, investigate, compare and present, the legal framework of the patient’s rights legislation in the European Union.

Methods

A literature search and review related to the patient right was conducted using PubMed, Cinahl, Medline and Google Scholar. With descriptive method we set up a theoretical framework of the patient’s rights legislation. We also use comporative method to discover the similarities and differences between legal systems and their components.

Results

Patient’s rights are in thirteen European Member States regulated by specific law - Law on patient’s rights.

Conclusions

EU Member States do not have a common legislation for patient’s rights. Patient’s rights vary from country to country. Some countries have a single law or act, others use multiple pieces of legislation. Nurses are an important voice of the patient. References: 1. Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Avalible at: Https://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/ (10. 4. 2019). 2. Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee on Patients’ rights. Official Journal EU, C10/67. Avalible at: Https://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:C:2008:010:0067:0071:EN:PDF (10. 4. 2019). 3. OECD - Patients, Patient Organisations and the Production of Medical Science and Technology. Avalible at: Http://www.oecd.org/education/innovation-education/32126031.pdf (10. 4. 2019). 4. Kozuh M., 2016. Legal Arrangements for the Protection of Patients’ Rights: A Comparative Overview of the Regulation in the EU (Master Thesis). University of Primorska Slovenia.

Clinical trial identification

Editorial acknowledgement

Legal entity responsible for the study

Maja Kozuh.

Funding

Has not received any funding.

Disclosure

The author has declared no conflicts of interest.