FCCPC Tasks Healthcare Institutions With Protecting Patients’ Rights

 The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) has urged healthcare service providers in the country to intensify efforts in protecting patients’ rights in their facilities. The FCCPC Executive Vice Chairman, Mr Babatunde Irukera, made the call while addressing medical staff of the Federal Teaching Hospital (FTH), Katsina, as part of efforts to ensure the domestication of the Patients’ Bill of Rights (PBoR) by healthcare institutions, on Thursday.

“Understand that your power over them, your knowledge and what you do for them or with them, puts you in a compelling position. So, try to protect all their rights,” he said.

In his remarks, Chief Medical Director, FTH, Dr Suleiman Bello-Mohammed, said that if properly implemented, the PBoR would foster a relationship of trust and empathy between healthcare providers and patients. “It gives power to a patient who is already in a vulnerable state to make informed decisions on how best his medical condition can be improved by caregivers,” he said.

Bello-Mohammed said the facility had already begun implementing PBoR, because no patient is rejected at the Accident and Emergency Unit (A&E), regardless of whether he can pay for services or not. He added that they have an effective SERVICOM Unit that tracks and monitors all health personnel to ensure that healthcare service delivery is “patient-centred”. The CMD further revealed that the unit also handles all complaints lodged by patients and ensures swift and fair adjudication.

Newsmen report that those rights included the right to information in a language and manner the patient understands and the right to timely access to detailed and accurate medical records and available services. Others are the right to transparent billing and full disclosure of costs, and the right to be treated with respect, regardless of gender, race, religion, ethnicity or allegations of crime. There is also the right to a clean, safe and secure healthcare environment, and the right to complain and express dissatisfaction regarding services received, among others.