Human Rights Centre: seminar on "The right to health and the role of Regional Ombudsmen"

“Citizen and right to health: the point on justiciablity. The role of Ombusdpersons” is the title of the public seminar organised by the Human Rights Centre of the University of Padua together with the Ombudsman of the Region of Veneto. The initiative was realised with the collaboration of the National Coordinating Body of Ombudspersons.

The right to health is a fundamental dimension of human rights. It is vast and global concept whose full realization, including the physical, mental and social dimension, requires the contribution of many institutions and administrations.

As in other areas, the action of the Ombudsman for the protection of the right to health is expressed by the tools of transparency and access to public acts or documents, expression of the constitutional principles of good administration and participation. Such criterions apply to both the management of health care (waiting lists for diagnostic check-ups, continuity of the treatment and social and health integration, actualization and maintenance of the Charter of services) and the problems that emerge in the cases of the professional responsibility of healthcare staff (also with reference to the requisites qualifying the health service).
On the subject of the right to health, worthy of note are the Ombudsman’s concrete corrective powers, especially the incentive to citizens to exercise a form of self-protection (corresponding to the obligation for the administration to remove every obstacle to the realisation of the requested service).

The purpose of the meeting was to discuss with both professionals and the wider citizenship – including in particular civic society organization working for patient’s rights - examples and best practices in the Region of Veneto and other Italian Regions. Interventions and contributions concerned the juridical and ethical problems connected to the management of health care services that have great potential to impact people’s standard of living, as well as best practices of Italian Regional Ombudsmen’s Offices. What is the role of the Regional Ombudsmen? How can Regional Ombudsmen contribute to the promotion of the citizen’s right to health while promoting the efficiency of healthcare providers?

The meeting is part of a peer-to-peer project on “Human Rights and the Role of the Regional Ombusdmen” organised by the Human Rights Centre of the University of Padua together with the Ombudsman of the Region of Veneto and with the collaboration of the National Coordinating Body of Ombudspersons and the Italian Ombudsman Institute.

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Last update

4/7/2013