The Georgian catalogue of patient rights is codified in a single law — the Georgian Law on Patient Rights, whose purpose is the protection of citizens' rights in the sphere of health care, together with the inviolability of their honour and dignity (Article 1). This page gathers the five pillars of that catalogue: the prohibition of discrimination, informed consent, the right to information, confidentiality and court protection — each carried by its own article of the law.
Non-Discrimination and Information
Article 6 prohibits discrimination against a patient on grounds of race, colour of skin, language, sex, genetic inheritance, belief and religion, political or other views, national, ethnic and social origin, property and social status, place of residence, disease, sexual orientation or personal negative attitude; the conditions for limiting a patient's rights in connection with a particular disease are determined by Georgian legislation. The information pillar is Article 16: every citizen of Georgia has the right to receive complete, objective, timely and understandable information about the factors that support the preservation of his or her health or affect it adversely; the state, in turn, must provide this information through the mass media or individually, upon request, in the manner established by Georgian legislation. These two norms define the environment in which every medical service is delivered: equal access and understandable information are not courtesies but statutory entitlements. Every citizen likewise has the right to receive full, objective, timely and understandable information about the factors that promote the preservation of health or adversely affect it.