DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF A RHP INGENERAL

Medical Ethics, Data Privacy & Confidentiality

• Principles of medical ethics, including professional norms for protecting patient privacy and confidentiality as per HCC Act shall be binding and must be upheld and practiced.
• Registered Homoeopathic Practitioner would be required to fully abide by the Homoeopathic Practitioners (Professional Conduct, Etiquette and Code of Ethics) Regulation 1982 and with the relevant provisions of the IT Act, Data protection and privacy laws or any applicable rules notified from time to time for protecting patient privacy and confidentiality and regarding the handling and transfer of such personal information regarding the patient. This shall be binding and must be upheld and practiced.
• Registered Homoeopathic Practitioner will not be held responsible for breach of confidentiality if there is a reasonable evidence to believe that patient’s privacy and confidentiality has been compromised by a technology breach or by a person other than Registered Homoeopathic Practitioner. The Registered Homoeopathic Practitioner should ensure that reasonable degree of care undertaken during hiring such services.
• Misconduct It is specifically noted that in addition to all general requirements under the HCC Act for professional conduct, ethics etc, while using telemedicine, all actions that willfully compromise patient care or privacy and confidentiality, or violate any prevailing law are explicitly not permissible.
  Some examples of actions that are not permissible:
  • Registered Homoeopathic Practitioners insisting on Telemedicine, when the patient is willing to travel to a facility and/or requests an in-person consultation
  • Registered Homoeopathic Practitioners misusing patient images and data, especially private and sensitive in nature (e.g. Registered Homoeopathic Practitioner uploads an explicit picture of patient on social media etc.)
  • Registered Homoeopathic Practitioners who use telemedicine to prescribe medicines from the specific restricted list.
  • Registered Homoeopathic Practitioners are not permitted to solicit patients for telemedicine through any advertisements or inducements.
• Penalties: As per HCC Act, ethics and other prevailing laws.