Are there patient-doctor confidentiality rights when getting medical treatment in China?
I am spending a few months in various spots throughout Asia this summer, and my parents forced me to come to Beijing, a city I am really not fond of at all, especially in the summer, to get medical treatment for a condition that I have, and the doctors here have absolutely no regard for my privacy. I'm not quite 18, so I am technically considered to be a minor in the US, but I thought the age of majority was different in China. In the US teens are granted a degree of privacy, and my doctor at home would never betray me by telling my parents things I told her in confidence. These doctors and nurses are total strangers to me, and I just answered their questions honestly and asked a few things relevant to my current situation, and I assumed they would respect my privacy, but they didn't at all. They told my parents everything. And I do mean everything from having a sinus infection and UTI, my weight, my sex life, and that I'm considering getting a tiny tattoo. I only asked about the tattoo because I wanted to make sure it was medically safe for me to get one now, but had I known they'd then mention it to my freaking mother I never would have told them. I'm not in some little makeshift hospital in a hut or anything. This hospital is world-class and actually nicer than the one at home in some ways, and all my treatment is covered by my health insurance, so I expected some conformity. It's affiliated with Duke University and Sloan Kettering in the US, plus several other leading hospitals or cancer institutions around the world, so it's very reputable and should have more standards of patient care. I went to a hospital in Shanghai the day after I arrived in China just for a check-up, and the doctors were really thoughtful and never even talked to my parents. They just emailed my doctor and gave her my stats, and that was that. I have to spend an entire week in Beijing getting treatment, and I don't trust my doctors at all now, and cannot stand them. Can I demand that they cease communication with my parents, or at least only tell them what is truly relevant to my medical condition?
Medicine - 2 Answers
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1 :
You can answer your own question by asking yourself, "What laws govern how doctors do things in China?" Your answer is none. You don't have any privacy in China if they don't want you to. Why do you think millions of residents of other countries try to leave and get to democracies? Good luck with your parents poor little rich girl.
2 :
You can demand whatever you want - however I am not sure in China they have ANY obligation to honor "rights" -- from basic human rights, to a perceived right to medical privacy. It ain't the US of A ....
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