As a patient, you have the right to receive health care services of good quality and safety.
What is the right to qualitative and safe health care?
The World Health Organisation defines patient safety as:
“the reduction of risk of unnecessary harm associated with healthcare to an acceptable minimum.”
The right to safety also includes a patient’s freedom from torture, non-consensual medical treatment and experimentation.
The World Health Organisation further defines high-quality health care as:
“the right care, at the right time, responding to the service users’ needs and preferences, while minimizing harm and resource waste.”
High-quality health care includes:
- skilled medical personnel
- scientifically approved methods
- the use of certified and unexpired drugs
- proper hospital equipment
- access to safe and potable water (in medical institutions)
- access to adequate sanitation (in medical institutions), etc.
According to the Law on the Rights of Patients, patients have the right to a respectful attitude and qualitative and qualified medical treatment regardless of the nature and severity of their disease.
Ensuring quality and safety of health care
The state ensures the quality and safety of health care through various means such as:
- only registered medical institutions having the right to offer health services
- all medical institutions needing to comply with mandatory requirements
- only registered medical professionals having the right to practice
- medical treatment having to follow approved clinical guidelines
- medical devices and equipment having to be licenced
- the medical technology being used must be approved by the National Health Service
- only approved medicines being used