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1-Right to Preventive Measures
Every individual has the right to a proper service in order to
prevent illness.
The health services have
the duty to pursue this end by raising people’s awareness,
guaranteeing health procedures at regular intervals free of charge
for various groups of the population at risk, and making the results
of scientific research and technological innovation available to
all.
2-Right of Access
Every individual has the right of access to the health services that
his or her health needs require. The health services must guarantee
equal access to everyone, without discriminating on the basis of
financial resources, place of residence, kind of illness or time of
access to services.
An individual requiring
treatment, but unable to sustain the costs, has the right to be
served free of charge.
Each individual has the
right to adequate services, independently of whether he or she has
been admitted to a small or large hospital or clinic. Each
individual, even without a required residence permit, has the right
to urgent or essential outpatient and inpatient care. An individual
suffering from a rare disease has the same right to the necessary
treatments and medication as someone with a more common disease.
3-Right to
Information
Every individual has the right to access to all kind of information
regarding their state of health, the health services and how to use
them, and all that scientific research and technological innovation
makes available.
Health care services,
providers and professionals have to provide patient-tailored
information, particularly taking into account the religious, ethnic
or linguistic specificities of the patient. The health services have
the duty to make all information easily accessible, removing
bureaucratic obstacles, educating health care providers, preparing
and distributing informational materials. A patient has the right of
direct access to his or her clinical file and medical records, to
photocopy them, to ask questions about their contents and to obtain
the correction of any errors they might contain. A hospital patient
has the right to information which is continuous and thorough; this
might be guaranteed by a “tutor”. Every individual has the right of
direct access to information on scientific research, pharmaceutical
care and technological innovations. This information can come from
either public or private sources, provided that it meets the
criteria of accuracy, reliability and transparency.
4-Right to Consent
Every individual
has the right of access to all information that might enable him or
her to actively participate in the decisions regarding his or her
health; this information is a prerequisite for any procedure and
treatment, including the participation in scientific research.
Health care providers and
professionals must give the patient all information relative to a
treatment or an operation to be undergone, including the associated
risks and discomforts, side-effects and alternatives. This
information must be given with enough advance time (at least 24
hours notice) to enable the patient to actively participate in the
therapeutic choices regarding his or her state of health. Health
care providers and professionals must use a language known to the
patient and communicate in
a way that is comprehensible to persons without a technical
background. In all circumstances which provide for a legal
representative to give the informed consent, the patient, whether a
minor or an adult unable to understand or to will, must still be as
involved as possible in the decisions regarding him or her. The
informed consent of a patient must be procured on this basis. A
patient has the right to refuse a treatment or a medical
intervention and to change his or her mind during the treatment,
refusing its continuation. A patient has the right to refuse
information about his or her health status.
5-Right to Free
Choice
Each individual has the right to freely choose from among different
treatment procedures and providers on the basis of adequate
information.
The patient has the right
to decide which diagnostic exams and therapies to undergo, and which
primary care doctor, specialist or hospital to use. The health
services have the duty to guarantee this right, providing patients
with information on the various centres and doctors able to provide
a certain treatment, and on the results of their activity. They must
remove any kind of obstacle limiting exercise of this right. A
patient who does not have trust in his or her doctor has the right
to designate another one.
6-Right to Privacy
and Confidentiality
Every individual has the right to the confidentiality of personal
information, including information regarding his or her state of
health and potential diagnostic or therapeutic procedures, as well
as the protection of his or her privacy during the performance of
diagnostic exams, specialist visits, and medical/surgical treatments
in general.
All the data and
information relative to an individual’s state of health, and to the
medical/surgical treatments to which he or she is subjected, must be
considered private, and as such, adequately protected. Personal
privacy must be respected, even in the course of medical/surgical
treatments (diagnostic exams, specialist visits, medications, etc.),
which must take place in an appropriate environment and in the
presence of only those who absolutely need to be there (unless the
patient has explicitly given consent or made a request).
7-Right to Respect of
Patients’ Time
Each individual has
the right to receive necessary treatment within a swift and
predetermined period of time. This right applies at each phase of
the treatment.
The health services have
the duty to fix waiting times within which certain services must be
provided, on the basis of specific standards and depending on the
degree of urgency of the case. The health services must guarantee
each individual access to services, ensuring immediate sign-up in
the case of waiting lists. Every individual that so requests has the
right to consult the waiting lists, within the bounds of respect for
privacy norms. Whenever the health services are unable to provide
services within the predetermined maximum times, the possibility to
seek alternative services of comparable quality must be guaranteed,
and any costs borne by the patient must be reimbursed within a
reasonable time. Doctors must devote adequate time to their
patients, including the time dedicated to providing information.
8-Right to the
Observance of Quality Standards
Each individual has the right of access to high quality health
services on the basis of the specification and observance of precise
standards.
The right to quality health
services requires that health care institutions and professionals
provide satisfactory levels of technical performance, comfort and
human relations. This implies the specification, and the observance,
of precise quality standards, fixed by means of a public and
consultative procedure and periodically reviewed and assessed.
9-Right to Safety
Each individual has the right to be free from harm caused by the
poor functioning of health services, medical malpractice and errors,
and the right of access to health services and treatments that meet
high safety standards.
To guarantee this right,
hospitals and health services must continuously monitor risk factors
and ensure that electronic medical devices are properly maintained
and operators are properly trained. All health professionals must be
fully responsible for the safety of all phases and elements of a
medical treatment. Medical doctors must be able to prevent the risk
of errors by monitoring precedents and receiving continuous
training. Health care staff that report existing risks to their
superiors and/or peers must be protected from possible adverse
consequences.
10-Right to
Innovation
Each individual has the right of access to innovative procedures,
including diagnostic procedures, according to international
standards and independently of economic or financial considerations.
The health services have
the duty to promote and sustain research in the biomedical field,
paying particular attention to rare diseases. Research results must
be adequately disseminated.
11-Right to Avoid
Unnecessary Suffering and Pain
Each individual has the right to avoid as much suffering and pain as
possible, in each phase of his or her illness.
The health services must
commit themselves to taking all measures useful to this end, like
providing palliative treatments and simplifying patients’ access to
them.
12-Right to
Personalized Treatment
Each individual has the right to diagnostic or therapeutic
programmes tailored as much as possible to his or her personal
needs.
The health services must
guarantee, to this end, flexible programmes, oriented as much as
possible to the individual, making sure that the criteria of
economic sustainability does not prevail over the right to health
care.
13-Right to Complain
Each individual has the right to complain whenever he or she has
suffered a harm and the right to receive a response or other
feedback.
The health services ought
to guarantee the exercise of this right, providing (with the help of
third parties) patients with information about their rights,
enabling them to recognise violations and to formalise their
complaint. A complaint must be followed up by an exhaustive written
response by the health service authorities within a fixed period of
time. The complaints must be made through standard procedures and
facilitated by independent bodies and/or citizens’ organizations and
cannot prejudice the patients’ right to take legal action or pursue
alternative dispute resolution.
14-Right to
Compensation
Each individual has the right to receive sufficient compensation
within a reasonably short time whenever he or she has suffered
physical or moral and psychological harm caused by a health service
treatment.
The health services must
guarantee compensation, whatever the gravity of the harm and its
cause (from an excessive wait to a case of malpractice), even when
the ultimate responsibility cannot be absolutely determined.
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