PATIENT RIGHTS:

• The rapid changes that have occurred in all areas of society, intensified by access
to information and catalyzed by technical and scientific advances since the end of
the 20th century, have led to conflicts between the rights and needs of patients
and some other social values, not always perceived in their true dimension, with a
lack of awareness among health personnel about the opinion of patients
regarding the medical care they receive.
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 1.- RIGHT TO SCIENTIFIC AND QUALITY
MEDICAL CARE

HUMAN.
► This right arises from the constitutional right to health protection. It materializes in the obligation of
professionals to offer all their patients, without discrimination, the appropriate diagnostic and
therapeutic methods, according to good medical practice (evidence-based medicine), always
seeking the best benefit for the patient.
► The patient has the right to be treated with consideration and respect, and to be assured of the
continuity of treatment, even if he or she rejects certain therapeutic options that would be
beneficial to him or her or when he or she has little cooperation with accepted treatments. In the
event that the doctor does not agree to continue treating the patient (conscientious objection or
loss of confidence), he must agree and guarantee assistance from another professional.
► You also have the right not to be given futile treatments that only prolong suffering or do not offer
an adequate quality of life, according to your criteria.
2.- RIGHT TO RECEIVE ADEQUATE,
UNDERSTANDABLE AND TRUTHFUL
INFORMATION.

► Patients have the right to know the full name of the professional responsible for their care, and to
be informed about their health status, the proposed medical procedures, the risks and advantages
of each one, as well as the alternatives, the effects of not treating and the diagnosis and
prognosis of their pathology.
► The information must be provided in a way that the patient understands, all his questions must be
answered and his wish not to be informed must be respected, in which case he must name the
person he wishes to be informed.
► The American Hospital Association's February 1973 Patient's Bill of Rights states: "The patient
has the right to obtain from his physician all available information relating to his diagnosis,
treatment, and prognosis, in terms reasonably understandable to him. When it is not medically
advisable to communicate such data to the patient, it must be provided to a person who
represents him or her."
3.- RIGHT TO SELF-DETERMINATION AND THEREFORE
TO ACCEPT OR REJECT TREATMENTS.

• Consent is one of the essential elements of every contract, together with the
object and the cause it forms the trilogy, without which the contract as such
does not exist. Informed consent (IC) constitutes an ethical requirement of the
rights of the citizen and is recognized in the General Health Law 26842.
INFORMED CONSENT (IC)
► It is the voluntary, free and rational manifestation made by a patient, of acceptance of a medical
procedure, after having been informed of it and having had all his/her questions answered
adequately and sufficiently, about the nature of the intervention, as well as the possible alternatives
with their respective risks and benefits.
► The patient must meet certain conditions for the Consent to be considered valid:
► a) COMPETENCE.- Only a competent person can give legally valid informed consent, whether the
patient and/or family member. In the case of minors or mentally ill persons, this responsibility must
be assumed by the responsible family member or guardian.
► b) INFORMATION.- It is the means that the patient has to be able to freely express his or her
opinion and make the decisions that he or she considers pertinent. The information must be provided
prior to the procedures and/or treatments that must be performed on the patient.
► c) VOLUNTARINESS.- For consent to be valid, it must be given freely and without any coercion,
regarding the patient's decision-making process.
► In which cases is CI not applicable?
► a) EXPRESS WAIVER BY THE PATIENT.- In this case, there must be a
family member or legal substitute willing to assume responsibility for the
decisions.
► b) TREATMENTS REQUIRED BY LAW.- Example: National vaccinations
as part of a sectoral policy or in the event of epidemics or natural
disasters.
► c) Possibility of correcting an unexpected alteration during an unexpected
surgical intervention.
► d) HEALTH EMERGENCY SITUATIONS.- In which the professional is
obliged to act within a short time frame.
4.- RIGHT TO THE
CONFIDENTIALITY OF YOUR
D AAll the inf
information regarding a patient's health, which the health professional
health information that the patient learns in the exercise of his or her profession
must be kept secret, unless authorized by the patient.
► This is stated in the Lisbon Declaration of the World Medical Association, which establishes in
its Article 8: "All identifiable information regarding a patient's health status, medical condition,
diagnosis and treatment, and all other personal information, must be kept secret, even after
deathhttp://www.monografias.com/trabajos15/tanatologia/tanatologia.shtml. Confidential information may only be
disclosed if the patient gives his or her explicit consent or if the law expressly provides for
this."
► Healthcare professionals and institutions must take all appropriate measures to ensure the
confidentiality of these data, regardless of the system used for their storage.
► The patient has the right to access his or her medical records, since the purpose of the medical
records is to facilitate patient care.
5.- THE RIGHT AND RESPECT FOR
PRIVACY.
► a) TERRITORIAL PRIVACY.- It refers to the privacy regarding one's own space, the reserve
regarding the possession of certain things, their disposition in space, and the possibility of others to
physically or cognitively enter that place.
► b) CORPORAL INTIMACY.- Intimacy with respect to the knowledge and contact with our body, to
the observation that others can make of certain actions
own: The doctor's need to examine the patient's body to reach the correct diagnosis must be fully
justified and the examination must be carried out with an exclusively technical intention, without
seeking or facilitating impressions or experiences of an aesthetic or erotic nature. The patient has the
right to refuse to be examined, or to request that all or part of the examination be carried out by a
professional of the same sex, and also has the right to refuse to participate in teaching or
researchhttp://www.monografias.com/trabajos54/la-investigacion/la-investigacion.shtml.
► c) PSYCHOLOGICAL OR SPIRITUAL PRIVACY.- That is, the right to keep my feelings, my beliefs,
my thoughts confidential. It refers to our own "interiority", developed on the basis of perceptions,
imaginations, memories, feelings, judgments, values, etc.
6 .- RIGHT TO HAVE THEIR DIGNITY AND PRIVATE LIFE
RESPECTED, TO ALLEVIATE THEIR SUFFERING, TO
HAVE A DIGNIFIED AND RELIEVED DEATH.
► The patient has the right to be treated with dignity in relation to the care received; to enjoy the
support of family and friends during the course of care and to have his suffering relieved according to
his level of knowledge at any given time.
► You have the right to humane and quality terminal care and to die with dignity, comfort and without
suffering, always in accordance with your will, beliefs and values.
► Respect for human dignity, defined as "the quality or state of being valued and respected," is the
basis of the affirmation, both legally and politically, of the rights of individuals, which, in turn, limit the
advances of science and technology, which must necessarily respect them.
► To the extent that dignity is inherent to all human beings, it is essentially democratic, does not admit
different levels and is not alienable. Consequently, no one, under any circumstances, can take away
the dignity of the human person. The rights of patients have their reason for being in this assertion.
7.- RIGHT TO HAVE YOUR CULTURAL, MORAL,
ETHICAL, ETC. CONVICTIONS RESPECTED.
• The patient has the right to have his or her convictions respected and the
health professional should not impose his or her own, especially in
situations in which the patient is particularly vulnerable.
8 .- RIGHT TO HEALTH EDUCATION.
• You also have the right to receive education on prevention and early
detection of complications, as well as healthy practices in your situation.
► Health professionals have the obligation to actively participate in this
process.
9 .- RIGHT TO RECEIVE OR REFUSE
SPIRITUAL SUPPORT.
• You also have the right to receive or refuse moral and spiritual assistance
from people of your religion.