HEALTH LAW, ETHICS AND POLICY WORKSHOP SERIES
presents
Herman Nys
Catholic University of Leuven
Europe's Experience with Patients' Rights Charters
Thursday, October 29, 2009
12:30 - 2:00
Solarium (room FA2), 84 Queen's Park
This lecture intends to provide an overview of existing practices in the area of patients’ rights protection, the legal frameworks in place both nationally and at different European levels, as well as the definition and implementation of patient rights in the EU. It will concentrate mainly on individual patient rights. Regardless of general rights that are also applicable in healthcare and that may be derived from more general sectors of law such as the civil code (right to privacy; right to redress and compensation) and the penal code (right to physical integrity; medical secrecy) in all 27 EU Member States one or another scheme for establishing individual patient rights exists (see below). They may however differ in considerable way according to their enforceable character.
a) Patient rights may be legal rights. These are well defined rights actionable against specified parties that should be respected with no limitations as to the providers’ resources.
b) Patient rights may be quasi legal rights. These are mainly obligations imposed on physicians and other healthcare providers often formulated as rights of patients for instance in a legally binding code of medical deontology.
c) Patient rights may be embedded in non-legally binding documents such as patient charters and non-binding codes of medical deontology. These “rights” are mainly moral in character.
Patient rights are generally derived from fundamental human rights, which have been widely acknowledged through international treaties. Therefore it is not surprising that the international level also plays an important role in promoting and enacting patient rights. In Europe, the Council of Europe can be regarded as the prime source when it comes to defending fundamental human rights and common democratic values. But increasingly the EU itself has also enacted legislation which directly or indirectly affects the position of patients in the healthcare process.
Herman Nys (1951) holds a degree of master and doctor in law at the KULeuven. He teaches medical law in the medical and law school of the KU Leuven. He is editor of the International Encyclopaedia of Medical Law. He is a founding member and director/treasurer of the European Association for Health Law (2008) and governor of the World Association for Medical Law.
A light lunch will be served.
For more workshop information, please go to our website at http://www.law.utoronto.ca/healthlaw/.
