Patients Rights Put Under the Microscope

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BIRN Serbia is organizing a public discussion on “Protection of patients’ rights – the law without implementation at the Media Center in Belgrade on Friday, December 20.

The speakers will be Perisa Simonovic, state secretary at the Health Ministry, Gordana Stevanovic, a representative of the ombudsman’s office, Marina Mijatovic, director of the NGO Legal Scanner, Predrag Stojicic, director of Serbia on the Move and representative of the council for patients’ rights in Kragujevac.

From December 1, under the law on the protection of patients’ rights, people have a right to better protection of their rights in the health care system in cooperation with a patients’ rights advisor in their local authorities.

However, a survey by Serbia on the Move shows that some municipalities have not yet appointed such advisers and are delaying implementation of the law on protecting patients’ rights.

The main obstacles in implementing the law, examples of good practice and the responsibilities of each actor in this process are all questions that the debate will cover.

BIRN Serbia in cooperation with NGO Serbia on the Move is organizing the discussion as a part of its monitoring project ‘’Mera Vlade’’.

Within this project, BIRN Serbia has been monitoring government policies in the fields of the economy, health, education and the fight against corruption since 2012.

The project aims to foster a greater degree of political accountability, transparency and efficiency in the implementation of reforms.