Are patients well informed by their doctors about their health?

Introduction: One of the basic rights of a patient is the right to be informed about his/her condition while undergoing treatment from the medical staff. Similarly to such rights as the right to autonomy, pastoral services and dignity, the right to receive information concerning a patient’s health is also one of the basic rights of a patient and of a human being.
Aim of the study: The objective of this research was to evaluate to what extent a patient’s right to be informed about his/her condition is respected while he/she undergoes medical procedures.
Material and methods: A group of 250 patients treated in Wojewódzki Specjalistyczny Szpital im. dr Mikołaj Pirogow in Łódź was interviewed by means of the author’s own survey in which such tools were used as required to assess the exercising of the patient’s right to be informed about his/her condition while receiving treatment. The necessary statistics were conducted by means of STATISTICA 7.1 and EXCEL 2008 programs.
Results: The analysis of the results shows that 171 (68.4%) patients did not receive sufficient information as regards their condition while undergoing medical procedures. As few as 79 (31.6%) of the respondents were of a different opinion.
Conclusions: In order that a patient can participate in therapeutic procedures consciously he/she needs to be knowledgeable of his/her disease and also of the available methods of treatment and possible side effects. Doctors are obliged to provide intelligible information relating to a patient’s condition, diagnosis, suggested diagnostic procedures and treatment together with foreseeable consequences of applying or relinquishing those, and also about the results of treatment and prognoses.