Violation of linguistic and patient’s rights in Kenya

Abstract

Health communication, particularly patients’ rights, has become an issue of concern in the recent past. This paper exposes the patients’ rights violation on two main planes: the linguistic plane and the right to information plane. The paper also assesses the world trend on the aforementioned violations and finally contextualises the patient-physicians relationship models. The paper makes the following observations: there is need to reinforce the law on package inserts, especially, the inserts for the patients in both content and language. The PPIs should be translated into Kiswahili for ease readability and access to information. There is also need to enlighten the public and patients in particular on the patients’ rights and enact and implement the Freedom of Information for the public to hold the state responsible for accountability and quality service including health services. Lastly, the paper recommends the adoption of interpretive model which harmonises physician’s medical facts and the patient’s personal values in arriving at a balanced decision on health issues.