Introduction
The Public Hospital Patient Charter (the Charter) is a set of principles that outlines the rights and responsibilities of patients in the public hospital system. The principles set out statements about the quality of care that patients can expect from a public hospital. The principles were developed with patients and health providers, including hospitals, the community such as General Practitioners, and other professional and consumer groups.
As part of the 1993-98 Medicare Agreement, Victoria along with all other States and Territories, agreed to develop a Public Hospital Patient Charter. In 1995, after extensive consultation with health services, professional bodies and consumer and community groups, Victoria launched its first Public Hospital Patient Charter, 'Putting Patients' First - Public Hospitals: What Do They Offer You?' The 1995 Charter may provide you with useful background information and ideas if you are developing your own comprehensive hospital based patient charter and information material.
The current Charter also underwent a consultation process. This included discussions with hospitals about their use of the 1995 Charter, as well as identifying if hospitals were developing their own patient information and rights and responsibilities documents. It was clear from this consultation that many hospitals had advanced their own work in developing locally relevant patient rights and responsibilities statements and patient information. In this sense, the Charter can now provide a 'minimum set of principles' that hospitals can use and build on.
It is hoped that the Charter provides opportunities for hospitals to broaden the way patient rights and responsibilities can be used to assist in improving service quality and responsiveness. The Charter is one initiative in a broader program that promotes consumer/patient participation at a number of hospital levels. Other initiatives in this program include the Communicating with Consumer Series; the Statewide Patient Satisfaction Monitor; hospital-based complaint handling and resolution processes and reporting complaints data to the Office of the Health Services Commissioner, the establishment of Community Advisory Committees in metropolitan health services, and the requirement for hospitals to provide Quality of Care Reports to their communities.
This website has been created to help inform community groups, consumers and health care providers about the Charter. From this site, you can access the Charter materials in over 16 languages. Hospitals can access resources to help them implement the Charter, develop their own individual Charters and download posters, pamphlets and fact sheets to print as needed. In addition, we would like you to become an active partner in this website by adding your ideas, achievements and comments at our interactive chat room.