A patient has rights which are expected to be respected by physicians and other healthcare providers that attend to him. Some of these rights are the following:
1. He has to be well-informed about his illness, the nature of treatments, likely outcomes and side-effects, if any.
2. His consent should be duly obtained before a surgical operation is carried out or any other special treatment is to be given to him. If he does not give his consent to a treatment, his decision must be respected. He may even reject blood transfusion . However, his care-giver has a duty to ensure that the patient is making an informed decision by explaining the likely consequence of his rejection of a prescribed treatment on his health.
3. His medical records and other sensitive personal information should be kept confidential, though they may be disclosed to a third party with his consent.
4. He has to be given quality services, subject to available medical facilities.
5. He has to be treated with care, professionalism and undivided attention. This means that a physician or any care-giver must not be negligent in attending to him. Treatment should be based on accurate diagnosis.
6. If his case requires specialist’s attention, he should be referred to the appropriate avenue to obtain such special treatment without any delay. A general medical practitioner may incur litigation if his handling of a patient who needs a specialist’s attention worsens the patient’s condition, even if he later refers.
7. He has to be discharged on his own request, unless he is in default of hospital bills.
8. He may take a legal action against a medical personnel or hospital management where negligence is committed against him.

Extracted from LEARNING THE LAW IN NIGERIA, a book written by Kehinde Adegbite, a Legal Practitioner, primarily designed to educate non-lawyers about basic issues of the Nigerian law which they need to know in order to get themselves empowered. For more legal hints, visit www.kehindeadegbite.com.ng

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