Axis One: The Right of the Patient to Receive Appropriate Health Services

Healthcare services must:

• Respect human dignity and cultural and religious values.
• Be based on honesty, fairness, courtesy, and compassion.
• Be provided without any form of discrimination.
• Be grounded in up‑to‑date scientific knowledge.
• Prioritize the patient’s best interests.
• Ensure fair distribution of health resources with patient safety in mind.
• Be coordinated across prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation.
• Provide essential comfort facilities and avoid unnecessary pain or limitations.
• Give special attention to vulnerable groups such as children, pregnant women, the elderly, psychiatric patients, prisoners, persons with disabilities, and those without guardians.
• Be delivered as promptly as possible with respect for the patient’s time.
• Consider factors such as language, age, and gender.
• Be provided in emergencies regardless of financial capability.
• In terminal stages, focus on comfort care, pain relief, and psychosocial, spiritual, and emotional support, with the right to be accompanied by a chosen person.

Axis Two: The Right to Receive Adequate Information

Information must include:

• The Patient Bill of Rights upon admission
• Hospital regulations, foreseeable costs, insurance policies, and support systems
• Names, roles, and professional ranks of healthcare providers
• Diagnostic and treatment methods, including risks and benefits
• Diagnosis, prognosis, and possible complications
• Access to the attending physician during treatment
• All research‑related procedures
• Necessary education for continuity of care

Information must be provided at an appropriate time and in a manner suited to the patient’s condition and understanding.

Patients have the right to access their medical records and request correction of errors.

Axis Three: The Right to Free Choice and Decision‑Making

Patients have the right to:

• Choose their physician and healthcare facility
• Seek a second medical opinion
• Accept or refuse proposed treatments
• Participate or decline participation in research
• Record advance directives regarding future medical care

Decisions must be made freely, knowingly, and with sufficient time provided.

Axis Four: Respect for Privacy and Confidentiality

• All patient information must remain confidential unless otherwise required by law.
• Privacy must be respected at all stages of care.
• Only authorized individuals may access patient information.
• Patients may have a trusted companion during examinations.
• Children have the right to be accompanied by a parent during treatment, unless medically contraindicated.

Axis Five: The Right to an Effective Complaints System

• Patients may file complaints without affecting the quality of care.
• Patients have the right to be informed of complaint procedures and outcomes.
• Proven damages resulting from medical errors must be compensated promptly in accordance with regulations.