Jan Arogya Abhiyan, an NGO working to defend and foster people’s right to health care in Maharashtra addresses a Petition to the Minister for Public Health and Family Welfare, Maharashtra, urging the Maharashtra government to adopt the  Standard Charter of Patients’ Rights:

We believe that in Doctor-Patient relations, patients are inherently vulnerable. Hence they need to be protected with the help of a legally enforceable Standard Charter of Patients’ Rights.  Establishing patient rights will impact our health care system in a significant and positive way.

Rights are correlated with both duties and responsibilities. All hospitals should adopt such a Standard Charter of Patient’s Rights, display it in the local language(s) in a prominent location in the Hospital, make copies available on demand, ensure its observance, and orient their staff for the same.  Patients should know how and where to report any denial of these rights by a doctor, nursing home, hospital or other health facility  We suggest a participatory redressal mechanism in the form of district level committees, with representatives from the government, hospital owners, medical practitioners, and consumer and health organisations, that any aggrieved persons could approach if required.  Medical staff or institutions found to be violating these rights should be subject to a fine or cancellation of registration following the norms stipulated in the Amended Bombay Nursing Home Registration Act.

E-Campaign for Patient Rights urges you to sign the petition so that patients approaching any health provider in the State do not have to face situations such as the ones illustrated in this post. The Charter has evolved over consultations between health rights groups, doctors, health providers and other stakeholders and its goal is to promote accountability among providers and protection for patients and its adoption could accelerate the process of similar policies being adopted elsewhere in the country- please sign the petition.