TO PROVIDE PATIENTS WITH QUALITY MEDICAL CARE

• We, the National Healthcare Group (NHG Health), including our member healthcare institutions, strive to provide quality medical care in treatment of your medical condition, promoting your well-being, and respect your right to appropriate assessment and management of pain. NHG Health aims to provide patient care within professional, financial, ethical and legal norms.

TO TREAT ALL PATIENTS WITH DIGNITY AND RESPECT

• You have the right to be treated with respect, dignity and compassion regardless of race, gender, age, religion, nationality, sexual orientation, social status, mental or physical abilities. This includes being:
  1. Attended to, and cared for, with the understanding that other patients may have more urgent needs.
  2. Addressed by your proper name.
  3. If required, provided with communication services like sign language, local language/dialect or foreign language interpretation to the extent available.
• NHG Health respects your right to seek a second opinion in relation to your care, and to request for discharge against medical advice. In doing so, you have to accept responsibility for any medical or financial consequences resulting from the decision.
• You shall be provided with respectful and compassionate care at the end of life, and where applicable, appropriate pastoral services.
• You have the right to make treatment or healthcare decisions in advance. All instructions related to your advance care planning will be respected and complied with, to the extent permitted by our institutions’ policies, professional standards and the law.
  1. We will endeavour to understand your treatment preferences, beliefs and values that are important to you and that may influence your care when you are ill. This includes our providing you with assistance in advance care planning, if you so wish.
  2. If you have earlier planned an Advance Medical Directive (AMD) as per the AMD Act 1996 (AMD Act), we will respect your known healthcare goals and wishes in accordance with the provisions of the AMD Act. If you do not have an AMD, we will provide you with information to help plan an AMD, if you wish.
• We aim to administer medical treatment in an environment that provides you with protection from harm by visitors, other patients, staff, and loss or theft of your personal possessions, especially when you are unable to assume responsibility.

TO MAINTAIN PRIVACY AND CONFIDENTIALITY OF PATIENTS’ HEALTH INFORMATION

• To the extent possible, you will be interviewed, examined and treated in a private environment. We do not discuss your medical condition with others not involved in your care without your prior consent, unless required by law. This includes your family members, if you make this known to us.
• We are bound by law and professional ethics to keep your health information confidential, including electronic forms of clinical documentation and systems. Unless otherwise required by law, access to your health information is strictly limited to authorised users.
• You may request a copy of your medical report(s), in accordance with our member institutions’ policies.
• Information collected from you may be used to contact you and will be used by your institution and its care provider partners, in accordance with the Personal Data Protection Act, Human Biomedical Research Act, and the NHG Personal Data Protection Notification, for provision of care and improvement of systems and processes.

TO ENABLE PATIENTS’ PARTICIPATION IN SERVICES UNDER MEDICAL SOCIAL SERVICES 

• When you provide information relating to you, your family and/or household members (including financial, social information and personal information) for the purposes of any applications for care arrangements, financial assistance and /or social support services (“Applications”), such information may be disclosed to and/or used by any public healthcare institutions or organisations for the purposes of assessing, processing, administering, auditing or supervising such applications and/or for the purposes of data analysis, evaluation or policy-making. 

TO ENABLE PATIENTS’ PARTICIPATION IN CLINICAL RESEARCH, HEALTH AND EDUCATION PROGRAMMES

• Your information may be used to contact and invite you to participate in health and education programmes or relevant clinical research deemed suitable based on your healthcare status.
• If you are invited to volunteer in any clinical research or health and education programme, you are free to choose to participate or not to participate. If you change your mind after you have agreed, you can withdraw from a project at any time without need to provide a reason. Your decision does not affect the quality of clinical care provided to you.
• Relevant information about your care may be used to improve the quality of care and future care delivery, including population health programmes. This information may also be shared with national, healthcare and multi-agency efforts to improve the quality of public healthcare services, and for disease surveillance to address public health concerns.
• Relevant information about your care may be used for clinical research, innovation and education purposes. This information may be used by NHG Health and/or made available to programme partners, research and innovation collaborators, and educators involved in clinicians’ training. As far as possible, identifiers in your data will be removed prior to such use or sharing to ensure your identity remains anonymous.
• Please be assured that if your personal data is collected, used or disclosed for any of these purposes, we will protect it as required under the Personal Data Protection Act and other relevant legislation.
• If you have any ethical concerns about your care, you can approach our nursing manager or team doctor for access to ethics consultation services where appropriate.

TO MAKE KNOWN THE IDENTITIES AND ROLES OF EACH PATIENT’S HEALTHCARE TEAM

• You are entitled to know the identities of the healthcare practitioners responsible for your care.
   

TO PROVIDE EXPLANATION, EDUCATION AND COUNSELLING TO PATIENTS

• You are entitled to be informed of your diagnosis, treatment, expected results and any other information deemed relevant and significant by the doctor, in facilitating your decision in the treatment and care process. These include (except in an emergency):
  1. Detailed explanation of your condition.
  2. Information on the planned course of treatment and procedures.
  3. Information on the risks, benefits and alternatives of treatment.
  4. Unanticipated outcomes, if any.
• You will be informed of your right to refuse or discontinue recommended treatment.

TO PROVIDE A CHANNEL FOR PATIENTS’ COMPLIMENTS AND FEEDBACK

• NHG Health appreciates feedback on areas we have done well or can improve upon. If you have any feedback, compliments or complaints, please contact our Service Quality at our institutional contacts from Mondays to Fridays, 9.00am to 5.00pm, or write to us at our institutional contact points.