These are the 8 Consumers rights in the use of Medicines.
I. Right to Basic Needs of Medicines
Healthcare is a basic need essential to live. It is your basic rights as an individual to have equitable access to medical care and medicines for health and wellbeing. Therefore, it forms the fundamental responsibilities of governments in every country to ensure that their people have equitable access to basic medicines needs.
II. Right to Information of the medicines.
Consumers have the right to be well-informed of the medicines they are taking. Healthcare professionals and the labels on medicines products must inform consumers what kind of medicines they are taking, what are the side effects, how to take their medicines, how frequent to take it, and the stating precautionary health warnings.
III. Right to Choice
The right to choose is essentially a consumer's right to choose a safe and healthy product of good quality over an unsafe or defective medicines product. By doing so, consumers can also influence healthy practices to be adopted by the market. It is also important for consumers to have a variety of healthy choices and in medicines, consumers have every right to choose and request for generic versions of their medicines from healthcare providers.
IV. Right to Safety
Every consumer has the right to safe medication. All medicines, whether its prescription drug or health supplements must not in anyway, bring harm to consumers. The Ministry of Health strives to ensure that every single medicines sold in the market is safe for consumer to use.
V. Right to Redress
The right to obtain redress is an important element given to protect consumer interests. Redress mechanisms such as the Consumer Tribunal and legal courts exist for consumers to gain redress and seek compensation for damages incurred due to medicines.
VI. Right to be heard
The right to be heard means that consumers should be allowed to voice their opinions and grievances at appropriate channels e.g. health authorities. If you have been cheated in the market place or deprived of the right quality of service about your medicines, your complaint should be heard and given due attention by the authorities. Consumers should also have a right to voice their opinion when rules and regulations concerning them are being drafted.
VII. Right to a Healthy and Sustainable Environment
The need for environmental conservation is seen as a necessary defense against deteriorating quality of life world-wide. As certain medicines are poisons, their disposal must be carefully and safely done so that it would not cause any significant harm to the surrounding living environment. Polluted environments lead to increased health costs and discomfort for consumers. Valuable resources are lost due to polluted environment and living conditions. Consumers need to understand that only a safe environment can ensure the fulfillment of their consumer rights.
VIII. Right to Consumer Education
Consumer education empowers consumers to exercise their consumer rights and is perhaps the single most powerful tool for consumer protection. Consumer education is dynamic, participatory and is mostly acquired by hands-on and practical experience. Consumer education can be in the form of past experiences of consumers, information dissemination by government agencies and NGOs, classroom teaching by teachers and informal lessons by parents.
