Protection of patients’ and medical workers’ rights.
Nowadays increasing legal literacy and forming good active position of citizens in the field of protection of rights in case of medical aid provision issues cannot stay unnoticed.
Moreover, it occurs often enough that these are citizens themselves who initiate the solution of issues concerning the protection of their rights and lawful interests in this field. Nevertheless it is only a professional representative, a lawyer, who can perceive all the tricky details of legal rules and existing jurisprudence, as well as form his or her own legal opinion.
It is worth mentioning considerable improvements in the legislation concerning health services over the last decade and its conformity to international standards.
The legal basis for resolution of issues concerning the protection of medical workers’ and individuals’ rights in rendering medical aid includes: the Constitution of the Russian Federation, the Federal law On the bases of the protection of Russian citizens’ health, the Civil Code of the Russian Federation and other acts.
For instance, the Constitution of the Russian Federation provides by its Article 41 (paragraph 1) that “Everyone shall have the right to health protection and medical aid. Medical aid in state and municipal health establishments shall be rendered to individuals gratis, at the expense of the corresponding budget, insurance contributions, and other proceeds’’.
In addition, Article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights declares that the States Parties recognize “the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health” and take steps to achieve the full realization of this right.
A clear statement of patients’ rights will certainly contribute to better understanding of overall responsibility in healthcare encounter.
Though there are still some considerable legal deficiencies in the realization mechanisms protecting lawful interests and patients’ rights for medical aid of guaranteed volume and quality, and it is important to state the lack of legal instruments regulating the relations between consumers of medical services and their providers.
Russian legislation in the field of medical activities contains a number of articles regulating the rules of definition of damage for compensation and the amount of the compensation.
The damage caused to a patient in case of undue medical aid shall be indemnified under a special procedure, including:
1. Indemnification of damage to the insured person’s property
2. Indemnification of damage caused to the insured person’s intangible values (life and health)
3. Compensation of moral damage.
So, it is a lawyer who is able to help to perceive all existing forms of protection of rights of both individuals and medical workers. It is the professional representative who can draft an appropriate legal document as well as chose the optimal system of defense for a particular situation. The means of individuals’ rights protection might include drafting of a letter before claim to regulate pre-action procedures, a direct participation of the lawyer in court proceedings and finally regulation of relations at the insurance company.
In case of controversies in such a specific sphere of human existence as public health it is extremely important that the lawyer be oriented to a prompt solution of the existing conflict and elaborate a really efficient action plan of execution of judicial decisions, especially those relating to monetary compensations.