Patients largely unaware of their rights in hospitals, says study

Patients in Karnataka are largely unaware of their rights due to the low priority for it in the healthcare system, a study conducted across 10 Mysuru hospitals shows. The study was published this March in the International Journal for Equity in Health.

Though many patients face issues like disrespectful behaviour, exorbitant costs and lack of informed consent, there is little discussion on patients’ rights. Whereas violence against doctors is taken more seriously.

The study, based on interviews and observations in five private and government hospitals each, showed that both patients and medical personnel believed patient rights are limited to availing of government schemes and grievance redressal in case of medical negligence.

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Fear of reprisal

Even patients who knew about their rights feared reprisal if they spoke up. Besides, patients had also internalised certain ideas promoted by healthcare facilities, such as their responsibilities being more important than their rights.

As per the Karnataka Private Medical Establishment (KPME) Act, all private hospitals have to display the patients’ rights charter. Same is the case for government hospitals opting for quality accreditations.

Charter hardly displayed

But the study found that only two out of the 10 hospitals displayed it. Though hospitals had brochures on patients’ rights, these were not distributed to all patients.

“Efforts to promote patients’ rights in hospitals are mere tokenism. Patients are dependent on the hospital to make them aware of these rights. So it’s the hospital’s discretion as to whether to inform the patients and in what manner,” says Meena Putturaj, lead author of the study.

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While the KPME Act broadly lays out patients’ rights in private hospitals, the content of the charter is at the individual hospital’s discretion, says Putturaj.

“For example, if the KPME Act says the patient has the right to access medical records, the hospital can articulate what kind of access is allowed.”

Besides, for government hospitals, there are no binding laws on patients’ rights, and only policy manuals apply.

The study found that patients themselves believed their ability to claim rights was linked to their ability to pay for the services.

Many doctors also believed that promoting patients’ rights in resource-limited settings would trigger violence.