On The Patients' Right To Know

With the development of the medical technology and the popularization of the sanitation, patients know more medical knowledge than before, and people like to participate in their treatment and pay more attention to their health. Patients want more right in the relationship between the patients and the doctors. Patients want their voice to be heard and confirm it as their basic right. That is called the rights of the patients to know. The basic meaning of the rights of the patients to know is that the patient is entitled to know all the information concerned with his disease and treatment and to freely make decision on whether a medical method should be taken to treat his disease. This paper talks about some questions about it, and comes out my own point of view.This article has four parts:Part one, the generalization of the rights of the patients to know. This thesis gives an exhaustive illustration on concept and characteristics, and the scope of it should only for the rational patient. It includes seven aspects: diagnosis of the illness, medical methods about character, aim, contents and reason to use, expectant results and possible risk, substitute therapy, the condition about the hospital and doctors, medical fee, the inform of the operation, special check up, special treatment. Only in some in-expected cases can avoid it like medical emergency, medical peculiar and the abandon of some right of the patients. It is really meaningful to make the rights of patients to know come to practice.Part two, To ensure the patient rights to know, the doctor assumes the duty to inform. Doctors have the duty to tell the diagnoses, medical measurement, potential development of the diseases, and possible risks to the patients and their relatives. Why it is a doctor's statutory duty to inform the patient with those information concerning patient's disease is that the patient could not exercise the right to make proper decision if the doctor does not tell him all the information concerned. In some regulate we can see the duty of doctors to inform. Moreover, the consent of the patient can prevent the infringement on the patient's body from illegal battery. Doctors need to consider themselves as the patients, and what he or she tell must be comprehensive, truthfully, correct, and informal. Doctors need to tell to the patients like the therapy, possible risk, substitute therapy, expectant results if the patients refuse the treatment. Only in some in-expected cases can avoid it like medical emergency, medical peculiar and the abandon of some right of the patients.Part three, some obstacles about the rights of the patients to know. Our domestic patients increasingly know more about the rights of the patients to know. We have made great congress while the rights of the patients to know come into practice, but it still has some obstacles. Some doctors still refuse to tell or do not completely tell the information to the patients, some doctor shift the duty to other doctors or tell the information to different relatives of the patients. To tell the reasons, it partly because the doctors have different understanding of this issue; and patients have different knowledge level, different culture, different states of mind, and also related to the disbelief between the doctors and the patients, and some other law aspects.Part four, legislation of the rights of the patients to know. Our country has some laws about the rights of the patients to know, and the duty of doctors to inform patients, but there are still some problems: first, the flaws of laws. Second, the narrow protection of the rights of the patients to know. Third, no concrete laws about the rights of the patients to know. Fourth, the concept of the rights of the patients to know is dim. Last, that the rights of the patients to know is not unified. There is a long way to go to improve the rights of the patients to know.The protection of the rights of the patients to know is about patients'benefits. It helps built a harmonious relationship between doctors and patients, and reduce some conflict; this paper is to discuss these problems and come out some solutions.