First Point: Getting proper health services is the right of the patient. 

Giving health services should be based on the following:

• Preserving the dignity of human beings and respecting the cultural and religious values and beliefs.
• Honesty, politeness, justice and accompanied with kindness.
• Absence of any kind of discrimination such as tribal, cultural, religious, illness kind and gender.
• Updated knowledge.
• Giving priority to the patient’s benefits.
• The fair distribution of health resources taking into consideration the patient’s safety, rights, and treatment priorities.
• Coordination of caring units such as prevention, diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation.
• Availing the complete basic welfare facilities away from imposing more pain and misery and unnecessary limitations.
• Giving special attention to society’s vulnerable groups such as children, pregnant women, the elderly, prisoners, mental and physical handicaps and orphans.
• Quick and responsive action respecting the time of the patient.
• Considering variables such as language, age and gender of patients.
• Providing care without paying attention to money in emergency situations. In elective cases, can should be given according to predefined regulations.
• If giving proper services is not possible in emergencies, the patient should be transferred to a better equipped center after giving the necessary services.
• In the last moments of the patient (when the patient is dying and cannot be resuscitated), services should aim to give the patient peace. By patient peace, we mean decreasing his/her pain and misery and paying attention to mental, social, spiritual and emotional needs of the patient and his family. The dying patient has the right to be with the person he wants in the last moments of his/her life.

Second Point: The patient should be given enough information in a proper way.

Information should consist of the following elements:

• The patient bill of rights at reception
• Predicted cost for the hospital including treatment services, non-treatment services, and insurance regulations, introducing supportive systems at reception.
• Name, responsibility and professional status of the medical team, including doctor, nurse and their professional relationship with each other.
• Both treatment and diagnosis methods; weak and strong points of each method and their probable side effects, illness diagnosis, pre-informing, side effects and other important information which may affect patient’s decision making.
• How to access to the treating doctor and other members of the medical team during treatment.
• All activities which are research-based
• Necessary training for the continuation of the treatment
• Informing the patient should be done as follows:
  • Information should be given to the patient in proper timing considering the conditions of the patient such as anxiety, pain, and other personal characteristics such as language, education, his comprehension power, etc.
  • If starting the treatment is delayed due to the collection of such information, informing the patient should be done after conducting the necessary activities within the proper time limits.
  • Although the patient knows that he has the right to be informed, he may still reject this process. In such case, the patient’s decision should be respected, unless the patient’s unawareness may expose him or others to serious danger.
  • Patient has the right to access his/her complete clinical file information, and a copy of this file should be given to him/her; he/she may also request to add/correct information.

Third Point: The patient is free in choosing to receive health services or not.

The spectrum of choice and decision making for the patient covers the following:

• Choosing the treating doctor and health center according to regulations
• Choosing and consulting a second doctor
• Participating or not participating in any research (the patient should be sure that such decision won’t affect his/her treatment)
• Accepting or rejecting suggested treatment after being informed of probable side effects, unless it is suicidal or the rejection of the suggested treatment would put another life in danger.
• Stating the patient’s idea in his/her medical records on the treatment procedure when the patient was still able to make a decision in order for it to be used by doctors if the patient loses his/her decision making power.
• The conditions for choosing and decision making consist of the following:
  • Patient’s choice and decision making should be free, with awareness, and based on complete information.
  • After receiving information, the patient should have enough time to decide.

Fourth Point: Giving health services should be based on respecting patient’s privacy and maintaining confidentiality.

• Confidentiality is necessary for all information related to the patient with the exception for cases that are exempted by law.
• In all stages of care from diagnosis to treatment, patient’s privacy should be respected. It is necessary to provide all necessary facilities to guarantee patient’s privacy.
• Only the patient, the treatment team, the people authorized by the patient, and the law enforcement authorities can have access to the information.
• The patient has the right to be accompanied by his trustee during all diagnosis stages. A child should be accompanied by one his parents during all stages of his/her treatment, unless this is against medical necessities.

Fifth Point: The patient has the right of access to the efficient system of dealing with the complaints.

• In case of not observing the items of this bill of rights, each patient has the right to complaint to concerned authorities.
• The patients should be informed of the processes of dealing with complaints and their results.
• Any investigated and proven damage due to an error from the health service center staff should be compensated in no time according to the rules.