5) Patient's Rights

• Human rights are the rights that belong to all humans regardless of their nationality, race, gender, age, or religion.
• There are different types of rights in organized society: moral, legal, and social.
• Patient's rights encompass legal and ethical issues in the physician-patient relationship, including a person's right to privacy, the right to quality medical care without prejudice, the right to make informed decisions about care and treatment options, and the right to refuse treatment.
• The Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations from 10.12.1948 states that every person has the freedom of choice, decision, and action, without affecting the interests of other members of society.
• Doctors have the obligation to actively participate in health education.
• The patient has the right to information.
• The patient's culture and values must be respected.
• Rights of the patient when performing procedures against the will of the patient can be performed only in exceptional cases, if are specifically permitted by law and follow the ethical principles.
• The patient has the right to religious assistance.
• The patient has the right to confidentiality.
• The patient has the right to humane palliative care to provide him with dignity death.
• The dignity of the patient must be respected at all stages of medical care.
• The Declaration states that every person is born equal to another and as such has the right to equal respect for his human dignity, regardless of his racial, ethnic, gender, age, social or religious affiliation.
• The World Medical Association (WMA) Declaration of Patient's Rights, Lisbon 1981, revised 1995 and 2005, states that every person has the right to quality medical care, the right to free choice, the right to self-determination, and the rights of the unconscious and legally incompetent patients.
• The National Information Centre for Patient Rights & Responsibilities provides information and consultations to patients in Bulgaria.
• The General and Special rights of the patient are protected by the PPR and Rights Patient Physiscian.
• 37% of people in Bulgaria have not heard of their right to informed consent in case of diagnostic or treatment.
• In Bulgaria, 91% of people have no idea which organization is responsible for defending their rights as patients.
• The NHIF hot line in Bulgaria provides services on 10 lines.
• The NHIF website for consultations in Bulgaria is in Bulgarian and English.
• Conducting medico-biological research on humans involves two main types of human experiments: medical research combined with professional care (clinical research) and non-therapeutic medical research involving human subjects creatures (non-clinical biomedical research).
• The National Health Insurance Fund is the national body in charge of implementing and enforcing patient rights in Bulgaria.
• The European Charter of patients’ rights can reinforce the degree of protection of patients/citizens’ rights in the different national contexts, and can be a tool for the harmonisation of national health systems that favours citizens’ and patients’ rights.
• 94,7% of respondents never filed a complaint concerning problems with medical care in Bulgaria.
• Special rights in the use of high-tech genetic techniques include the right to donate genetic material and fetal tissues, the right to informed consent, the right to a written contract, and the right to privacy.
• Rights of mentally ill persons include the right to be free from discrimination, the right to be treated with respect, and the right to have their human rights observed.
• Patient's rights during transplantation are guaranteed by conditions that ensure protection of human rights and freedoms of donors and recipients, officially recognized medical standards, necessary medical examinations and medical methods for taking, storing and transplanting organs, tissues and cells for healing purposes.
• Rights of persons in case of gender change include the right to have their gender officially recognized based on their physical marks, the right to have their gender identity recognized, and the right to use reproductive technologies.
• Right to a dignified death (euthanasia) includes the right to refuse medical treatment, the right to die with dignity, and the right to have one's pain relieved.
• Rights of individuals in human reproduction use of reproductive technologies include the right to use reproductive technologies, the right to information about reproductive technologies, and the right to choose from among various reproductive technologies.