A STUDY ON AWARENESS AND RIGHTS OF MEDICAL PATIENT

Abstract

The relationship between doctor and patient is based upon trust. For the proper diagnosis and treatment, patient must disclose the illness truthfully and physician must keep confidentiality of the records as per Hippocratic Oath. Of late, the medical community, the courts, and society have been struggling in particular with whether the breach of the duty of confidentiality by a physician is permissible or to be encouraged. The rational in this study examines the concept of privacy along with the ethical and legal justification for protecting patient’s confidentiality. After having established a right to medical confidentiality, the numerous exceptions to the right which exist due to the need to balance an individual’s privacy against competing social needs arise. Although, medical records are considered as an exclusive property of hospital or health care institutions; patient’s right to gain access to their medical records is also discussed. Medical patients at the same must also understand their rights when they get treatment. Through this research, researcher endeavors to find out the rights of a medical patients along with the awareness among medical patients. Descriptive research methodology is used for completing this research study. Both primary and secondary sources of data collected and hypothesis tested to establish the relationship between the research variables.