Promotion of the Rights of Patients in Europe contains authoritative briefings from members of the drafting group and from leading representatives of various physician, patient and citizens'' groups, as well as from the Council of Europe.

Patients'' rights are placed in the context and perspective of other significant emergent trends and issues: patient education and health education, provider-patient relationships, and social rights and citizen views on health care reforms.

The various strategic options for furthering the implementation of patients'' rights are formulated, the emphasis being on options which could be selected and adapted to fit the respective contexts of different countries, underlining the different roles of different organizations, including international ones.