Rights and responsibilities

Patients and visitors
Rights and responsibilities

We aim to respect your individuality and dignity, and offer hospitable and compassionate care.

We recognise the role of carers and will collaborate and include you when planning and providing patient care.

As a patient under our care, you have rights and responsibilities which are consistent with the Australian Charter of Healthcare Rights and are important when partnering with us in your
care.

As a child safe organisation we are committed to ensuring the following rights are maintained and embraced while a child or young person is in our care. View the Children and Young People’s Rights.

Access to health care

You have a right to:

Access health care services and treatments that meet your needs, including pastoral and spiritual care
Access your health care record in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

You have a responsibility to:

Attend your appointments, and tell us if you are unable to make an appointment
Be aware that sometimes your ongoing health care needs may not be able to be provided at the health care facility you first attend.

Receiving safe and high quality care

You have a right to:

Receive competent, timely and professional care that meets your needs
Be cared for in an environment that is safe and makes you feel safe

You have a responsibility to:

Provide accurate information about your health and tell us any information that may impact your care (including alternative or complementary therapies)
Tell caregivers of changes you notice in your medical condition e.g. pain
Cooperate with your care team so that our caregivers can provide care in a safe environment e.g. work with caregivers when you are being moved
Observe hospital directives e.g. emergency situations, no smoking, visiting hours and report any safety concerns you may have.

Respect, dignity and consideration

You have a right to:

Care that respects your culture, identity, beliefs, values, disabilities, personal needs and any special requirements
Have your choices recognised and respected.

You have a responsibility to:

Tell caregivers of circumstances concerning your culture, identity, beliefs and disabilities so they can respond to your needs
Treat caregivers, patients, volunteers and visitors with respect and dignity
Recognise and respect the role and dignity of our caregivers and their right to a safe and pleasant environment
Understand that aggressive, violent or abusive behaviour will not be tolerated.

Communication and information

You have a right to:

Receive open, timely and clear communication and information about your health care
Be told the names and roles of the caregivers involved in your care
Advice and assistance, if needed, to help you understand and use health information
Receive information about services, waiting times and costs relating to your treatment.

You have a responsibility to:

Be as open and honest as you can, and ask for more information if you do not understand
Inform caregivers if English is not your first language so you can be given access to an interpreter in person or by the telephone
Contact your health fund before being admitted to hospital to check your level of health fund cover and be aware of any associated restrictions

Partnership in decisions and choices about care

You have a right to:

Take part in making decisions and choices about your care and health service planning
Seek a second medical opinion and query additional costs involved
Include the people you want in planning and decision-making.

You have a responsibility to:

Ask questions so you can be informed about your medical condition and your care options before giving your consent to any treatment
Discuss your concerns and decisions with your caregivers, for example, if you do not wish to continue treatment, are unable to comply with treatment, or want to discharge yourself against medical advice. Once you are aware of the implications, you accept responsibility for the consequences of your decisions
Provide a copy of advanced health directives, enduring power of attorney or other legal documents which may be relevant to your care
Participate in your care planning
Be aware of your private health fund cover and associated restrictions and costs.

Privacy and confidentiality of personal information

You have a right to:

Personal privacy, and your personal information being kept secure and confidential

You have a responsibility to:

Accept that your health information may be shared with appropriate health care providers
Ask that your recorded health information be corrected if it is inaccurate
Respect the privacy and confidentiality of others
More information about privacy is available online.

Commenting about your care

You have a right to:

Share your experience and participate to improve quality of care and health services
Comment on care and have your concerns addressed in a transparent and timely way - you can provide feedback or make a complaint online
Voice a concern if you are not satisfied with any aspect of care
Know that voicing a concern will not negatively affect your care or hospital stay

You have a responsibility to:

Provide verbal or written comments, complaints or commendations
Advise your caregivers of any concerns about any aspect of your care or treatment

Charter of Healthcare Rights and Responsibilities in Auslan

Written for the cognitively impaired and CALD versions:

Children and young people’s rights

The Charter on the Rights of Children and Young People in Healthcare Services in Australia provides a framework to help empower children and young people to know about their rights and guidance for the staff caring for them.

Every child and young person has the right:

to consideration of their best interests as the primary concern of all involved in his or her care
to express their views, and to be heard and taken seriously
to the highest attainable standard of healthcare
to respect for themselves as a whole person, as well as respect for their family and the family’s individual characteristics, beliefs, culture and context
to be nurtured by their parents and family, and to have family relationships supported by the service in which the child or young person is receiving healthcare
to information, in a form that is understandable to them
to participate in decision-making and, as appropriate to their capabilities, to make decisions about their care
to be kept safe from all forms of harm
to have their privacy respected
to participate in education, play, creative activities and recreation, even if this is difficult due to their illness or disability
to continuity of healthcare, including well-planned care that takes them beyond the paediatric context.

Open disclosure

At St John of God Health Care, we are committed to providing safe and high quality health care to all of our patients. Occasionally, things can go wrong and you might experience an unplanned event resulting in unexpected/unintended outcomes.

During open disclosure, you can expect clear and open communication about what happened, why the event occurred, and what is being done to prevent it from happening again.

Open disclosure is defined in the Australian Open Disclosure Framework as: "An open discussion or series of discussions with a patient and/or their support person(s) about a patient safety incident which could have resulted, or did result in harm to that patient while they were receiving health care." (ACSQHC, 2013)

Please refer to the below links for further information on open disclosure:

Statutory Duty of Candour - Victoria

The Statutory Duty of Candour is a legal obligation for Victorian health service entities to ensure that patients and their families or carers are apologised to and communicated with openly and honestly, and in a timely manner when a serious adverse patient safety event has occurred. They can also expect to receive the findings from reviews of the event. The Statutory Duty of Candour builds on the Australian Open Disclosure Framework currently utilised for all cases of harm and near misses (Safer Care Victoria, 2022).

Find out more about the Statutory Duty of Candour on the Safer Care Victoria website.