General National Patient Rights Protection

The general rights of patients are governed by Chapter II (Rights and obligations of patients) and Chapter VI (Rights and obligations of healthcare workers) of the Health Act CLIV of 1997, as amended. This is an example of a special law on patient rights. Chapter II has to a large extent been based on the WHO Declaration of Amsterdam. The intentions of the Hungarian legislator are clearly reflected in the “General Reasoning” that accompanied the Health Act Bill: “The Act in force (id est before the Health Act CLIV of 1997) does not clearly regulate the rights and obligations of the parties in the relations within the healthcare system. For example, certain entitlements of the patient are only expressed as obligations of the healthcare staff – as the opposite party – although such rights should have been declared as subjective ones in order to render their enforcement possible”. Thus, the Act contains now legal rights of patient vis-à-vis physicians.  

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