Patients’ Rights

1. Anyone is free to choose the health establishment in which to be treated, depending on the capacities of each establishment.
The public hospitals are available to all, particularly the poorest and, in an emergency, to those without welfare cover. They are appropriate for disabled people.

2. Health establishments guarantee the quality of the reception, treatments and care.
They pay attention to pain relief and do everything possible to ensure everyone has dignity in life, with particular attention paid to the end of life.

3. Information given to the patient must be accessible and accurate.
The hospitalised person will participate in the therapeutic choices which concern him/her. He/she may be assisted in this choice by a freely chosen confidential person.

4. A medical act may not be performed without the free, informed consent of the patient.
The patient has the right to refuse any treatment.
Any major may express his/her wishes about the end of his/her life in a living will.

5. Specific consent is required, particularly for patients taking part in biomedical research, for the donation and use of parts and products of the human body and for screening acts.

6. A person to whom it has been suggested that he/she participates in biomedical research is informed, especially about the expected benefits and the foreseeable risks.
He/she will give written consent. A refusal to take part will not have any consequences on the quality of care he/she receives.

7. Apart from exceptions provided for by law, the hospitalised person may at any time leave the establishment after having been informed of the possible risks of doing so.

8. The hospitalised person will be treated with consideration.
His/her beliefs will be respected. He/she will be accorded privacy and peace and quiet.

9. Respect for private life is guaranteed for everyone as well as the confidentiality of personal, administrative, medical and social information concerning patients.

10. The hospitalised person (or his/her legal representatives) will have the benefit of direct access to the medical information concerning him/her. Under certain conditions, his/her heirs will benefit from the same right if he/she has died.

11. The hospitalised person can express his/her opinions on the care and the welcome he/she has received.

In each establishment, a client relations and quality of care committee will ensure, in particular, the respect of clinic user rights.
Anyone has the right to be heard by an establishment manager to express his/her complaints and to demand compensation for the damage to which he/she considers he/she was subject within the framework of an amiable settlement of complaints and/or before a court.
_{* General principles of the French Ministerial Circular No. 2006-90 of 2 March 2006 concerning the rights of hospitalised persons. This charter is available to you in its full form at Reception.}