Do patients have rights and obligations? The answer is yes. According to Head, Legal Department, Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Mr Sesan Olajide, patients have rights and obligations, which must be enforced at all times.
He said identifying and observing these rights are important to the patients and the community.
Caregivers, he said, should treat patients the way they would want to be treated if they were in their shoes.
Besides, it is important for healthcare givers and patients to understand the legal and moral consideration attached to patient care.
He said there was no reason to violate the rights of the patient even when they are physically, emotionally and psychologically weak.
Many public complaints, he said, border on patients’ or their relations’ dissatisfaction with the attitude of caregivers.
Patients, according to him, should not be seen as completely subservient, ignorant and uneducated to discern unsuitable or inadequate care or to question the treatment and the manner of delivery, especially the attitude of the healthcare providers.
Quoting from Schenk vs Living Centers – East Incorporation’s case, he said: “The court said if entrusting one’s money to an investment or finance company creates a fiduciary and business relationship of trust and accountability, it is to be expected, at least in principle, that entrusting a valued family member to the care of healthcare facilities would carry similar responsibilities.”
Olajide praised some dedicated health caregivers for performing despite limited resources, frustrating challenges, excruciating and extenuating circumstances.
He continued: “They are exposed to serious risks and daunting occupational hazards, but then, the nature of patient/caregiver relationship is such that it is proper and not out of place for patients and their relations to expect that healthcare professionals will at all times demonstrate genuine interest in helping them.”
Olajide spoke of direct correlation between human and patients’ rights, stressing that the latter were firmly rooted in human rights provisions of the constitution.
These rights, according to him, include: “The rights to life, dignity of human person, personal liberty, private and family life, freedom of thought, conscience and religion and right to freedom from discrimination”.
These rights, the lawyer said, were founded on the principle of patient’s independence, adding that it recognised human capacity to manage his health as well as choose a course of action from among various options.
The rights, he said, were specified in the ‘Rules of Professional Conduct’ for the healthcare professions.
They are: the right to receive healthcare without discrimination as to race, colour and religion, as well as sex, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation or age; the right to receive considerate, and respectful and compassionate care.
Why? This is because a patient must be accorded courtesy, respect, dignity, responsiveness, and prompt attention to his or her needs. “Caregivers should be polite and not rude to patients. The patient must be given the healthcare services that are appropriate for his individual needs,” he added.
Other rights are: The right to receive complete and easily understood information from health care personnel and to discuss the benefits, risks, cost, including the likely and unexpected outcome of treatment and appropriate treatment alternatives that are available. It is all about communication, especially in non-technical way.
He said a patient has rights to make decisions regarding the healthcare that is recommended by his or her caregivers after being informed about his or her condition.
“He has the right to bodily health management as stated by the Supreme Court in Medical and Dental Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal vs Dr Okonkwo that the right to privacy enshrined in the 1999 Constitution implies a right to protect one’s thought, conscience and religious belief and practice from coercive and unjustified intrusion; and one’s body from unauthorised invasion and it implies a right not to be prevented, without lawful justification, from choosing the course of one’s life, fashioned on what one believes in, and a right not to be coerced into acting contrary to one’s religious belief.
Patients, he said, could accept or refuse any recommended medical treatment, adding that the caregivers have the duty to explain to them truthfully and with all sense of maturity and professionalism what their situations are.
“They should be informed and counseled about the consequences of their decisions, Olajide said,” adding: “Where the patients are unable to personally make decisions, they have the right to be represented by their next-of-kin or surrogate decision makers.”
He berated some caregivers for their failure to inform patients of their diagnosis.
This, he described as a common practice in Nigeria, saying some caregivers often ignore the responsibility to give patients sufficient information regarding their situation.
“This is a clear violation of the right of the patient,” he said, adding: “Where a caregiver fails to give the patient sufficient information about his care, he has already undermined the right of the patient to make decisions regarding his bodily health management.”
He questioned the constitutionality of Section 23(1) (a) of the National Health Act, which supported non-disclosure where it was contrary to the best interest of the patients, describing it as “questionable”.
Medical law across the world, he said, has moved beyond what the section in NHA says.
Caregivers, he said, should not reveal information about their patients without their consent to third parties, except as permitted by the law.
Moreover, access to patient’s records should be limited to those involved in the patient’s treatment and those designated by him. “Discussions between patients and caregivers must also be conducted in a manner that ensures patient’s privacy. This ensures the right to confidentiality and privacy,” he said.
Patients, he said, also have the right to know the names and roles of the persons responsible for their care.
