Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has launched the landmark Patients’ Bill of Rights in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital on Tuesday.

The bill protects the rights and dignity of patients when they seek healthcare services across the country. It is also designed to help patients know their right and use those rights at medical facilities.

The bill by the Consumer Protection Council (CPC) and the Ministry of Health is an aggregation of Patients’ Rights that exist in other instruments including the constitution, Consumer Protection Council Act, Freedom of Information Act, National Health Act, the Hippocratic Oath and others.

Speaking on the Patients’ Bill of Rights, Babatunde Irkera, Director General, CPC said, “Respecting the rights of patients to quality care and dignity is sometimes a matter of life and death; the most vulnerable are the sick, we must be especially attentive to their rights, as they sometimes can’t even demand.”