The connection between law and medicine is revealing. Thus, presented dissertation is a complex study of a patient’s status aimed at the formation of analytical framework for the contextual interplay between modern legal doctrine, provisions of the domestic legislation and the practice of its implementation. Against this backdrop, the author reveals the essence of the legal status of the patient through the coordinated complex analysis of its core, constitutive and limiting elements.
The author offers to interpret the patient’s legal status as a special type of general legal status of an individual, which reflects the relationship between patient and authorized persons (including, the state, health protection authorities, representatives of private medical practice) via the establishment of their rights, responsibilities and other legal factors. Particularly, the latter are important for the proper legal implementation of an individual’s rights in the health care domain.
Originally linked with the ideas suggested in contemporary medical law science, this thesis answers pressing questions about different aspects of the patient’s legal status, including its conceptual and normative perspectives. The author’s discussion provides key insights into the certain types of patient’s legal status. Consequently, there should be distinguished the following types: a) general; b) generic (among criteria for a division are the disease, social or professional status of the patient, type of medical service, legal personality of the person); c) individual.
Special reference is made to the theoretical and legal structure of the patient’s legal status. The author substantiates it is comprised of: 1) core elements – principles of the legal status; 2) constitutive elements – the rights of the patient and guarantees of their implementation; 3) restrictive – the patient’s responsibilities and legal liability in case of non-compliance with them.
Additionally, among the objectives of the current scientific research was to sketch a useful concrete framework for the concept of the term «patient». Specifically, there are following legal features of the aforesaid definition: only an individual can obtain a status of patient; health condition is not a key factor for the obtaining the patient’s status (in other words, an individual can obtain the status of patient despite the presence of a certain disease); an individual enters into a legal relationship related to his/her health; applies to health authorities or a medical specialist for medical services.
After providing an overview of current practices, the author goes on to analyze the principles of the modern health care activity. Thus, all suggested arguments are based on the fact that access to the health care is one of the main principles of the patient's legal status. Such access has a comprehensive nature, covers the availability of medical care and the availability of other medicines, which is widely enshrined in international, regional and national legislation. The criteria for implementing the principle of accessibility are highlighted.
All international standards in the field of equality according to medical criteria are grouped into three main blocks: standards of equality of patients’ rights regardless of age; standards of equality of terminally ill and dying persons; standards of equality of patients regardless of the diagnosis. The principle of equality in the field of health care covers the following factors that must be ensured by the state: equal access to available services and assistance for equal needs; equal use in relation to equal need; equal quality of care provided for everyone.
For the first time in the national legal doctrine, the main legal criteria for the safety of medical care are defined. Specifically, such criteria include following requirements: medical care must be provided by a qualified specialist; medical activities should be carried out without harm to the patient’s health through the proper performance of professional duties by a medical professional; the risk to the patient’s health during the medical intervention must be justified (risky methods are considered acceptable in case they meet modern scientifically sound requirements aimed at preventing a real threat to life and health of the patient; such methods are applied with the informed consent of the patient, and the doctor take all appropriate measures in such cases to prevent harm to the life and health of the patient); prohibition against medical malpractice. Looking at the results of this study, the necessity of a comprehensive approach to patient safety problems is substantiated.
