State Govts, Healthcare Providers Task to Domesticate Patients’ Bill of Right

Kemi Olaitan in  Ibadan

The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) has called for the entrenchment and domestication of the Patients’ Bill of Right by state governments and concerned healthcare providers with a view to increasing consumers’ confidence in the services they receive.

The Technical Consultant to the Executive Vice Chairman, Morayo Adebayo, made the call at a healthcare provider training organised by Ace in collaboration with FCCPC themed, ‘Strengthening Patient-Centered Care: A Health Care Provider Training’, held in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.

According to her, the National Health Act was passed in 2014 and it included a lot of things, stating that stakeholders are not yet satisfied with the implementation of the Act hence is why the FCCPC came up with the PBoR in 2018 to simplify the rights of patients and make it more accessible.

“Certainly, grassroots level engagement is very important because if the people don’t know their right, they won’t be able to assert or enforce it or come to people like us to complain when such rights are being violated. 

“Our strategy is to sensitise consumers at the grassroots level and also healthcare providers. As long as we continue on this sensitisation path which we started in 2018, over 20 healthcare facilities have domesticated the PBoR. That is, when you enter such facilities, you see at the entrance or reception, a bold signage which says these are the rights of the patients.

“Patients’ confidence in such facilities would be enriched because a facility that would declare patients’ rights would definitely be willing to go beyond declaring those rights to promoting, protecting and enforcing those rights,” she said.

The Chairman of the Nigerian Medical Association, Oyo State chapter, Dr. Wale Lasisi, in his remarks, said with recent advancement in internet use, most patients and doctors inclusive are being enlightened on their rights, stating that there is the assurance that improvements will be experienced as regards rights of patients and caregivers.