Signed, not Ratified
 Patient Rights in Italy

Right to Informed Consent

Right to Information about his or her Health
Rights regarding the Medical File
Right to Privacy
Right to Complain and to Compensation
 
Rights of Users of Genetic Services
 

 



    Generally speaking, professionals are required to exercise their activity with due care and reasonable diligence. Medical malpractice cases are innumerable and have been covering several areas involving doctors, surgeons, nurses and other medical professionals.
    • Within the ordinary course of the medical profession, the victim must prove that there was a causal connection between the physician’s behavior and the loss incurred. He must also show that the physician’s act was by its own nature easily executable, which implies culpa laevis, to be presumed existing whenever the court finds that the patient’s condition got worse as a result thereof. In such case, the physician may however prove that this action was performed with diligence.
    • In the case of routine operations, medical professionals are basically subject to strict liability. If the operation is particularly complex, courts refer to the gross negligence principle, but call for a high level of professional due care and attentiveness.

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