REVIEW PAPER
The fulfilment of patients’ rights in the provision of teleconsultations during the COVID-19 epidemic state from the viewpoint of administrative decisions in proceedings in case of practices violating collective patient’s rights
More details
Hide details
1
Katedra Prawa, Wydział Prawa i Komunikacji Społecznej we Wrocławiu, Uniwersytet SWPS, Polska
Submission date: 2023-08-15
Final revision date: 2023-09-14
Acceptance date: 2023-09-15
Publication date: 2024-05-13
Corresponding author
Katarzyna Maria Zoń
Katedra Prawa, Wydział Prawa i Komunikacji Społecznej we Wrocławiu, Uniwersytet SWPS, Polska
LW 2024;102(1):30-36
KEYWORDS
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
The article analyses the issues of the fulfilment of patients’ rights in the provision of teleconsultations in primary healthcare during the COVID-19 epidemic state from the viewpoint of the public law protection instrument being the institution of practices violating collective patients’ rights. This study aims to determine the practices of healthcare providers, which were verified by the Patients’ Rights Ombudsman in proceedings in case of practices violating collective patient’s rights. Moreover, the paper aims to identify particular manifestations of the violation of collective patients’ rights. According to the analysis, the aforementioned proceedings focused essentially on two categories of practices of healthcare providers. The first one involves the limitation or deprivation of patients of real possibility to register for an appointment within publicly funded healthcare which are exemplified by such practices as: not answering or rejecting the patients’ call and excessive waiting time for someone to answer the phone. The other group of practices constitutes the lack of full information about the conditions of providing teleconsultations in primary healthcare, which was required according to the organisational standard (absence of one, several, or all prescribed elements) on the website and on the premises of the clinic. Taking the above into consideration, it should be pointed out that the competence of the Patients’ Rights Ombudsman in conducting proceedings in case of practices violating collective patients’ rights has a real impact on the protection of patients’ rights in systemic terms.