Understanding Patient Rights in Canada

• Patient rights in Canada fall into 4 main categories.
• The Patient Bill of Rights (Bill C-261) has not been made law, it is a Private Members Bill.
• The Bill offers guidance and protection to patients when receiving treatment.
• The Bill outlines the responsibilities of patients to ensure the most benefit from the health care they receive.

Full Disclosure

• Patients have the right to be fully informed of their medical condition.
• Patients have the right to be fully informed of treatment options available.
• Patients have the right to be fully informed of risks associated with treatment options.
• Patients have the right to be fully informed of the qualifications of their health care provider.

Privacy

• The right to privacy includes communicating with health professionals.
• Health professionals are responsible to keep all information confidential.
• Access to health care records is restricted to public health services specifically for treatment.

Access

• Patients have the right to access and copies of all personal health records.
• Patients have the right to a second opinion with regards to diagnosis and treatment.

Consent to Medical Treatment

• Patients have the right to accept or reject medical interventions (either verbally or in writing).
• Consent must be voluntary.
• The patient must be legally competent to consent, ie: a "mature minor" (SK ~ 16) & mentally stable.
• The patient must be properly informed of the nature and consequences of a treatment by a health care provider before consenting to it.
• "Medical interventions" requiring informed consent include: physical examinations (entails touching), taking blood, injecting vaccines or other drugs, exposing the patient to radiation as a part of a diagnosis, and medications including interactions with other drugs.
• Doctors have the right to save lives or to prevent lasting physical/mental harm (if you are incapable of consenting to treatment i.e. you are a minor, unconscious or admitted for psychiatric treatment) unless you have an Advance Care Directive.

Patient Responsibilities

• Patients have responsibilities to ensure the best possible result of medical treatments.
• Patients must provide accurate and complete information about medical complaints, past illnesses, hospitalizations, medications, pain, and other matters relating to their health.
• Patients must follow the treatment plan recommended by those responsible for their care.
• Patients must accept consequences if they refuse treatment or do not follow the healthcare team's instructions.
• Patients must follow rules and regulations set out by Health Canada and Saskatchewan Health.

Doctor's Ethical Decision Making

• Practitioners must consider Autonomy, Beneficence, Non-Maleficence, and Justice.

Autonomy

• Patients have the right to make their own decisions.
• Physicians should help the patient come to their own decision by providing full information.
• Physicians should uphold a competent, adult patient's decision, even if it appears medically wrong.
• Practitioners should consult patients and make them fully aware of any potential risks/dangers or side effects of a treatment
• Practitioners should obtain informed consent from a patient and maintain medical confidentiality.

Beneficence/Non-Maleficence

• Beneficence means to provide benefit and Non-Maleficence is to provide the least amount of harm, as stated in the Hippocratic Oath.
• The practitioner should do as much medical benefit to patients as possible with minimal harm.
• Practitioners should ensure they can provide the benefits they profess with ongoing professional training before and throughout a career.
• Treatment should always provide a net benefit.
• Non-maleficence reminds Practitioners to ponder the possibility of doing harm, especially when they cannot cure.
• Most treatments involve some degree of risks & side effects.
• A benefit to one patient may be harmful to another like: A mastectomy may benefit to a 29 year old patient with breast cancer, but a harm to a 75 year old patient with the same condition or in dealing with healthy people with immunizations; do the benefits outweigh the potential harms?
• There may be harmful consequences, such as labelling a patient with bipolar disorder, in treating Incurable Disorders.

Justice

• Justice can be split into 3 categories: Distributive, Rights based, and Legal
• Distributive Justice: distribution of start resources.
• Rights based Justice: respect for people's rights
• Legal Justice: respect for morally acceptable laws
• Fair is not always equal
• Practitioners must avoid making decisions that have no moral basis or justification. It is not the role of the provider to punish patients e.g. withholding antibiotics from a heavy smoker who refuses to give it up
• Practitioners must not waste resources and must consider costs of various treatments that will have same result e.g. generic meds
• A practitioner must respect patients' human rights, disapproval of a patient's lifestyle would not be a morally acceptable justification for refusing to provide treatment.
• Practitioners must obey laws set out by Health Canada e.g. If a patient has one of several infectious diseases, the practitioner is legally obliged to notify the relevant authorities even though they don't want to break a patient's confidence.

Explore the landscape of patient rights in Canada, focusing on the four main categories that safeguard individuals receiving treatment. Learn about the proposed Patient Bill of Rights (Bill C-261) and its guidance for patients. Understand the responsibilities of patients in ensuring they derive the most benefit from their healthcare journey.