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7 Eur. J. Health L. 1 (2000)
Patients' Rights in Europe: Where Do We Stand and Where Do We Go

handle is hein.journals/eurjhlb7 and id is 11 raw text is: European Journal of Health Law 7:1-3, 2000. 1 © 2000 Kluwer Law International. Printed in the Netherlands. EDITORIAL Patients' Rights in Europe: Where do we stand and where do we go? In the last decade, patients' rights and citizens' empowerment have been emphasised throughout Europe. A comprehensive study of the rights of patient in Europe was made in the beginning of the 1990's and was the starting point of various approaches to promote patients' rights.1 Six years after the endorsement of the WHO Regional Office for Europe 'Declaration of the Promotion of Patients Rights' (Amsterdam 1994) , eight countries have enacted specific patients' rights legislation in the spirit of the Amsterdam Declaration. These countries are Finland, the Netherlands, Iceland, Lithuania, Denmark, Norway, Israel and Greece'. Another three countries, France, the United Kingdom and Ireland use a non-legal framework, Patients' Charters, to promote the position of patients and citizens. In addition, the Council of Europe and several Non Governmental Organisations (NGO's) such as Consumers International, World Medical Association and the European Platform for Patients' Organisations, Science and Industry have been involved in various activities aiming at supporting the patients' rights development in Europe. In 1997 the W H 0 Regional Office for Europe initiated a patients' rights network' together with its three collaborating centres: the Centre for Health System Research in Warsaw, the Centre for Health Services Studies, University of Kent in Canterbury, England and the Nordic School of Public Health in Gothenburg. The objective of the network is to support Member States of the WHO European Region in their efforts to develop patients' rights legislation in accordance with the Amsterdam Declaration. But regardless of several initiatives to promote patients' rights and citizens' empowerment throughout Europe, we have to recognise the shortcomings of using legal means to promote patient focused legislation. There is no golden rule how to be successful in implementing patients' rights into a country. In some countries, where laws on the rights of patients have been introduced during the last decade, experience shows that legislation doesn't necessarily change the behaviour of health services personnel. One of the major problems with patients' rights legislation is the issue of implementation. This is also one of the suggested themes at the 13th World Congress on Medical Law in Helsinki in August 2000. The problem of

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