Scientific Correspondence: Special Rights for Cancer Patients in Saudi Arabia

International Journal of Medical Justice. 2023Dec15;1(2):105–13. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10391956

Abstract

Abstract: Patients' rights have always been a delicate topic that is addressed globally. Any nation's number of lawsuits brought against medical professionals is influenced by the rights granted to patients by the authorities. It can be assumed that,  as more rights are given  there might be more violations and subsequent legal litigation cases. In this scenario, granting patients less rights would result in a violation of their fundamental human rights. The question that bothers the authorities is how much optimum rights are given to patient population which limits the amount of fallacious legal litigations, without hampering basic human rights. The Saudi Arabian Ministry of Health established the Patients Bill for Rights and Responsibilities in 2006 and defined patient rights as the laws and regulations that the healthcare system must uphold and defend for patients and their families [1, 2, 5]. In this manuscript, the authors are presenting special legal rights given to cancer patients in Saudi Arabia. According to the authors, patients in Saudi Arabia have very balanced legal rights on a number of fronts. In Saudi Arabia Patients with cancer, AIDS, mental health patients, women's health, companion rights, and even visitor rights are all well documented in Patients Rights and responsibility Bill prescribed by Ministry of Health, Saudi Arabia. In the end, it is determined that Saudi Arabia has excellent documentation, protection, and application of patient rights including legal rights of cancer patients. It is also concluded that Ministry of Health, Saudi Arabia is very serious in terms of Cancer Patient Rights.

Introduction: Patients' rights have always been a delicate topic that is addressed globally. Any nation's number of lawsuits brought against medical professionals is influenced by the rights granted to patients by the authorities. It can be assumed that as more rights are given there might be more violations and subsequent legal litigation cases. In this situation, granting patients less rights would might result in a violation of their fundamental human rights. The question that bothers the authorities is how much optimum rights are given to population which limits the amount of fallacious legal litigations without hampering basic human rights. The Saudi Arabian Ministry of Health established the Patients Bill for Rights and Responsibilities in 2006 and defined patient rights as the laws and regulations that the healthcare system must uphold and defend for patients and their families [1, 2, 5]. Despite the low cancer incidence in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia [15], the rights of cancer patients are specifically addressed in details in this legal bill. Apart from general rights right of reproduction, Pregnancy, genetic testing, right to work and Pain treatment were also protected. There is special provision for Rights of Young Cancer patients.