The plenary chamber on Thursday gave the go-ahead to update the more than 20-year-old Patients' Rights Act. The revised law will ensure healthcare providers must take the patient's wishes and expectations into account.
While the old Patients' Rights Act was considered innovative when introduced in 2002, it struggles to reflect the medical world today It highlighted the need for a modernisation of the law, and the proposal put forward by Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke (Vooruit) on Thursday night was given the green light by the House.
"This is a nice achievement," said the President of the CM Health Fund Luc Van Gorp. "A patient is more than a diagnosis and treatment. A patient is first and foremost a human being living in a certain context, with other people around him or her, with an idea of what gives him or her quality of life."
One of the objectives of the reform is to put the patient's life goals, health goals and values at the centre of the treatment. The new law allows patients to explicitly state these wishes. For example, someone who is incurably ill may value time at home with their family more than extending their life with treatments in a hospital, something to be taken into account by healthcare providers.
Credit: Belga / Dirk Waem
"The law confirms the idea increasingly prevalent in practice, namely that the treatment that is medically-technically the best should not be effectively the path to follow," said Van Gorp. The healthcare provider must also thoroughly inform the patient about his or her state of health and treatment, and give the patient enough time to ask questions.
Transparency and clarity
Patients will also be better empowered to take control of their care. Transparency and clear information are key concepts of the law change, and healthcare providers will have a duty to disclose patient data electronically, meaning records can no longer be kept solely on paper. However, when this obligation will come into force is yet to be determined.
Another key novelty is transparency around costs: information about the full cost of treatment, including any supplements and non-reimbursed benefits, as a clear patient right.
Every patient will also be entitled to a trusted person to assist them in exercising all their rights, even if they are incapacitated. Foster parents will be formally empowered to represent their foster child, and relatives of a deceased patient will be given the possibility to file a complaint.
Finally, the new law also meets the demand of relatives of deceased minors to access their patient records after their death, which was not possible until today.
"This is a strong step forward in person-centred care," said Van Gorp. "But we must remain vigilant that the law does not remain a dead letter. There must be clear guidelines and tools for healthcare providers to implement the law."
