AN ASSESSMENT OF THE RIGHT TO PRIVACY AND CONFIDENTIALITY OF PATIENTS IN THE CONTEXT OF MEDICAL NEGLIGENCE, ERROR AND MALPRACTICE IN NIGERIA

Abstract

The Nigerian medical system on which a large percentage of Nigerians depend for healthcare is bedeviled with numerous challenges which cause systemic dysfunction and inefficiencies for safe quality healthcare delivery. This problem worsens with the incidents of medical negligence, error and malpractice which are caused by medical practitioners on the one hand and government on the other through institutional weaknesses with the consequences for patients amounting to the violation of the right to privacy and confidentiality of patients. As regards Nigerian medical professionals, the occurrence of harm to patients is prohibited under a medical rights enforcement mechanism. However, in the face of the continuing occurrence of these events, the objective of this study was to determine whether patients have fundamental rights and whether harm to patients through medical negligence, error and malpractice was in violation of their fundamental right to right to privacy and confidentiality of patients. Pursuant to this, the doctrinal research method was employed to undertake the evaluation through reliance on available Library literature, Journal publications and Internet sources. It was found that the harmful consequences due to medical negligence, error and malpractice are in violation of the fundamental right to liberty in Nigeria. Furthermore, it was found that although there is the problem of the significant violation of the fundamental right to privacy and confidentiality of patients in medical practice in Nigeria, fundamental rights law was not been enforced to prevent this from happening or provide remedy upon occurrence. The identification of this problem, offered the opportunity for the use of fundamental rights enforcement procedure as a basis for medical malpractice claim. Accordingly, it was recommended that the fundamental right of patients be enforced in medical practice in Nigeria through the fundamental rights enforcement procedure.