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Saudi Journal of Medicine & Medical Sciences logoLink to Saudi Journal of Medicine & Medical Sciences
letter
. 2017 Dec 14;6(1):47. doi: 10.4103/sjmms.sjmms_126_17

Patient's Bill of Rights: Is it a Challenge for Quality Health Care in Saudi Arabia?

Beuy Joob 1,✉, Viroj Wiwanitkit 1
PMCID: PMC6196683  PMID: 30787819

Dear Editor,

We read the article titled, “Patient's Bill of Rights: Is it a Challenge for Quality Health Care in Saudi Arabia?” with great interest.[1] Mahrous concluded that “This study shows that in Al-Madinah Al-Munawarah, Saudi Arabia, there is a low level of awareness among patients admitted to hospitals regarding their rights.”[1] We would like to share ideas and experience on this topic. Patients' awareness on their rights is usually low in developing countries. In our setting, according to the local accreditation guideline, information regarding patients' rights should be clearly demonstrated in all areas of the medical center.[2,3] In addition, this information must also be displayed in all outpatient department areas. However, patients may not necessarily pay attention and carefully read the information provided. Therefore, to mitigate this problem, regardless of patients' awareness of their rights, medical personnel should consider it their responsibility to follow the ethical guidelines in professional practice on patients.[4]

Financial support and sponsorship

Nil.

Conflicts of interest

There are no conflicts of interest.

REFERENCES

  • 1.Mahrous MS. Patient's bill of rights: Is it a challenge for quality health care in Saudi Arabia? Saudi J Med Med Sci. 2017;5:254–9. doi: 10.4103/sjmms.sjmms_147_16. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 2.Turale S. Ethical dilemmas: The challenge of advocating for human rights. Int Nurs Rev. 2014;61:299–300. doi: 10.1111/inr.12130. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 3.Rosenberg ST. Asserting the primacy of health over patent rights: A comparative study of the processes that led to the use of compulsory licensing in Thailand and Brazil. Dev World Bioeth. 2014;14:83–91. doi: 10.1111/dewb.12050. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 4.Wiwanitkit V. Disguised information. J Med Assoc Thai. 2007;90:2541–2. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

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