engleski

Patients Rights in Croatia at the Crossroads- Should We Settle for Window Dressing or Could We Do Better?

Croatia was the first transitional country in the region of the former Yugoslavia to implement the Law on the protection of patients' rights. The legislation on patients’ rights was a significant step in drawing closer to international standards of protection of patients’ rights, that is the standards that exist in developed western democracies. However, legislation alone still does not have a significant effect on the actual position of patients in the Croatian health care system. At the end of 2007 the first workshop and meeting of newly formed committees for the protection of patients’ rights on national and local level was held in Zagreb. During this meeting a series of data regarding work of the committees for the protection of patients’ rights were presented. By using this data a current situation regarding patients’ rights in Croatia will be presented with an emphasis on the legal aspect of the process with an overview of the practices and experiences present in the work of committees for the protection of patients’ rights. Our analysis presents and explores of the causes of the gulf between the law and the actual position of patients.

pateints' rights; Croatia; legal framework implementation; societla issues

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