Patient Rights

Patient rights are defined as the extension of human rights in the field of healthcare. Most patient rights are directly related to fundamental human rights. Patient rights ensure that individuals can benefit from healthcare services under conditions consistent with human rights. Patient rights are the reflection of human rights in healthcare services. They aim to protect the rights that individuals have simply because they are human while they are receiving healthcare services.

Patient rights—related to the reflection in healthcare of rights such as the right to life, the right to the inviolability of bodily integrity, the right to respect for private life, the right to health, the right to non-discrimination, freedom of expression, and respect for freedom of conscience and beliefs—can also be defined as the interpretation of these rights in relation to healthcare services.

Due to the complexity of the healthcare system, the high cost of healthcare services, and the weaker position of individuals in relation to the person or institution they apply to, it has become more difficult for individuals to receive services in accordance with human rights. Such reasons have also put patients’ bodily integrity and right to respect for private life at risk.

On the other hand, the strengthening of individual and social rights and freedoms has brought these rights onto the agenda in the healthcare field as well. In this context, patient rights have come to the fore in order to ensure that individuals benefit from healthcare services under conditions consistent with human rights.

For this purpose, human rights are evaluated specifically in relation to patients, and the concept of patient rights is discussed.

In Türkiye, the Patient Rights Regulation was published in 1998 (PRR).

The PRR covers all healthcare institutions and organizations providing healthcare services.

Accordingly, the PRR covers:

• All public healthcare institutions and organizations,

• All private healthcare institutions and organizations,

• Individuals at every level and title participating in the service,

• Everyone who has the right to benefit from the service.

The PRR includes certain principles that must be complied with in the provision of healthcare services:

• Patients have the right to live in complete mental and physical well-being. This is the most fundamental right of patients and must be taken into account at every stage of the service.

• Patients have the right to life and to protect and develop their material and moral existence. No institution or person can abolish this right. Patients must be treated humanely.

• In providing healthcare services, differences such as patients’ language, religion, race, sect, gender, political opinion, philosophical belief, economic and social status cannot be taken into consideration.

• Except in cases prescribed by law and in medical necessities, bodily integrity and other personal rights cannot be interfered with without the patient’s consent.

• Patients cannot be subjected to medical research without their consent and without the Ministry’s permission.

• Except in cases permitted by law and in medically necessary situations, the privacy of the patient’s and the family’s private life cannot be violated.

Health Law Attorney Volkan Yalçınkaya