Securing rights of patients in India: Lessons from rapid surveys on the Patient’s Rights Charter and COVID-19 vaccination drive

The report presents the findings of two rapid surveys undertaken by Oxfam India in January 2021. The first survey studies the implementation of The Charter of Patient’s Rights (adopted by the National Human Rights Commission in the year 2018) while the second documents the experiences of people during the Covid-19 vaccination drive. The authors of the report are public health researchers Shriyuta Abhishek, Anjela Taneja and Nitin Jadhav from Oxfam India, and independent researcher Ankit Vyas.The report states that various rights of patients were violated during the Covid-19 pandemic in India: they were denied essential healthcare services and forced to pay inflated hospital bills in the private sector. Citizens from marginalised communities such as Dalits, Adivasis and Muslims, experienced “new forms of violence and discrimination” in public and private hospitals.The two surveys were carried out in 28 states and five union territories through self-administered questionnaires. The one on The Charter of Patient’s Rights – a 27-page document listing 17 rights – was undertaken between February and April 2021, receiving around 3,900 responses. On the other hand, the survey on the Covid-19 vaccination drive was undertaken from March to May 2021 and received about 11,000 responses.This 57-page report is divided into two parts: Rapid Survey Of Experiences Of Patients Based On Patients’ Rights Charter (Part 1); and Is India’s COVID-19 vaccination drive equitable and pro-people? (Part 2).