PROTECTION OF THE RIGHTS OF CONSUMERS OF MEDICAL SERVICES: LEGAL NATURE, FEATURES AND MECHANISMS OF LEGAL PROTECTION

Abstract

The article examines the essence of protection of the rights of healthcare
consumers. The study of the protection of the rights of healthcare consumers is
normative, as it was conducted as a result of explaining the data arising from
scientific concepts, legal norms, library materials, and Ukrainian judicial practice
in the field of patient protection. In writing this article, the author used general
scientific (analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction, abstraction and
concretization, analogy, forecasting and modeling, etc.) and special (formal legal,
comparative legal, formal legal methods, etc.) research methods.
The author characterizes the legal relations for protection of the rights of
consumers of medical services. The author identifies the main participants of such
relations, in particular, consumers of medical services and providers of these
services, as well as auxiliary subjects, which include lawyers providing legal
advice on mechanisms for protecting medical rights, courts and other state bodies
responsible for implementing health care policy. The author substantiates that
legal relations for the protection of healthcare consumers’ rights are
characterized by the following features: emergence and implementation in the
healthcare sector; participation of entities with a special legal status (e.g., a
patient - a medical institution); comprehensive application of legal provisions on
healthcare law and consumer protection legislation; and the existence of a
violation of healthcare rights.
The author concludes that the basis for the emergence of legal relations for
the protection of the rights of healthcare consumers is the legal fact of violation of
the patient’s medical rights in the form of a medical tort. At the same time, the
object of protection of the rights of consumers of medical services is an absolute
good - personal intangible goods (life, health).