Your healthcare rights and responsibilities

The Australian Charter of Healthcare Rights

The Australian Charter of Healthcare Rights is for everyone. It's a guide to the rights you or someone you care for can expect when being treated in our health service.

Making your health decisions

Advance care planning is thinking about and making choices now that will guide your future care.

You may have strong beliefs about what you want to happen with your care in the future. If you do, it's important to let someone know what your plans and wishes are now.

You might need to make some tough decisions while you're in hospital. These could be about your treatment and care if you're seriously ill. An Acute Resuscitation Plan (ARP) is a medical order about the treatments that you want if you become very unwell and can't speak for yourself.

You can discuss your wishes and preferences with your medical team, and your substitute decision-maker or makers. The ARP form is stored in your medical record so it is available in an emergency.

You can find out more about Acute resuscitation plans on the Queensland Clinical Excellence website.

It's important for you to be clear about your plans and beliefs so we can give you the best care. Let your family and healthcare team know of any advance health directives or power of attorney that you've made.

Advance care planning documents

It can be confusing and difficult to understand the differences between the advance care planning documents used.

The Queensland Government has developed a comparison table to help you compare and understand these better. It'll help you to learn the difference between each type of document. You can use these to decide what's best for you and your care plan.

Read more about advance care planning on the Queensland Government website.

Organ and tissue donation

You can register to donate your organs or tissue when you die. Make sure you tell your family and friends if you want to be a donor.

You can also be a living donor. You can include your wishes in advance care planning.

You can read more about organ donation on the Australian Government Organ and Tissue Authority website.

Ryan's Rule

Ryan's Rule is a 3 step process to support patients of any age, their families and carers. It's used to raise concerns if a patient's health condition is getting worse or not improving as well as expected.

Read more about the Ryan's Rule escalation process on the Clinical Excellence Queensland website.

Independent Patient Rights Advisers (IPRA)

IPRAs offer independent and impartial support to any patient receiving treatment from our Mental Health Service, either as an inpatient or in the community.

An IPRA can help you, your family, your carers and other support persons to:

• know your rights and responsibilities under the Mental Health Act 2016
• express your views and wishes for your treatment and care
• get legal advice and support for Mental Health Review Tribunal (MHRT) hearings
• appoint a Nominated Support Person (NSP)
• learn the benefits of an Advance Health Directive (AHD) for mental health and how to create one.

To book an appointment with an IPRA phone: 07 5470 5546 or Email: sc-ipra@health.qld.gov.au or ask your nurse or case manager to contact an IPRA for you.

Right to information

The Right to Information Act 2009 (RTI Act) and the Information Privacy Act 2009 (IP Act) aim to make more information available. They give equal access to information across all sectors of the community, and appropriate protection for individuals' privacy.

You can also read more in the Hospital and Health Boards Act 2011.