Knowledge and Attitudes towards Patient's Rights among Health Care Providers in Primary Care Health Centers in Basrah

Background: Patients are now much aware of what they expect from health care professionals regarding their rights, while the responsibility of healthcare providers is to fulfill this expectation. Little is known about healthcare providers' knowledge and attitude toward patients' rights in Basrah. Aim: To determine the level of knowledge and attitude of health care providers (physicians and nurses) in primary health care centers in Basrah toward patient rights. Material and Methods: A sample group of 333 of health care professionals (physicians and nurses) was enrolled from 16 primary health care centers in Basrah city. A self-administered questionnaire inquired about the knowledge and the way in which patients rights are perceived by the sample group. Results: Slightly more than one third of the participants (36%) knew the patients' rights (40.4% of doctors and 34.2% of nurses). The right to good care and management, privacy and confidentiality of the patients were the best known rights. Despite the poor knowledge of physician on patients' rights, the majority held good attitude toward many of these rights particularly the rights of care and respect (73.7%), privacy and confidentiality (76.8%), and the right to sue authorities about ignorance (70.7%).