On the legal potential of the concept of "medical assistance" as a tool for improving its quality indicators

The subject of the study is the relationships related to the realization of citizens' rights to health protection and medical care. In the context of improving the quality of medical care, its concept, as enshrined in legislation, has been analyzed. The opinions of scholars on changes in the concept of "medical care" that enhance the effect of influence on medical-related relationships toward improving their quality have been studied. Proposals to establish levels of quality in the concept of medical care have been convincingly assessed. Their ambiguous role in determining the necessity and sufficiency of medical professionals' efforts regarding the patient's health has been noted. The dominant organizational nature of the existing legislative definition of the concept of medical care has been observed, which complicates the formation of legal relationships around the medical process and limits the opportunities to enhance quality indicators of care through the legal resource of the concept. It is suggested to strengthen its legal potential by more fully reflecting the status of the patient, as one of the parties in the relationship of providing care, possessing opportunities to influence this process by managing the value of "health." The main research method used was comparative legal analysis. Conditions for improving medical care have been identified by leveraging the broad opportunities and productivity of the results obtained through comparative analysis of scientific works and examples of law enforcement practice on the relevant topic. The scientific novelty lies in the fact that, through examples of theory and application of law, new knowledge has been gained that is useful for the development of existing doctrinal approaches in legal science. The limitations of the dominant sectoral approach to the legal nature of the concept of "medical care" have been convincingly argued. The organizational and managerial nature of medical relationships, primarily ensured based on this concept, does not allow for the full utilization of the legal resource and its key principle of formal equality. The patient loses the ability to influence the process of receiving medical care by exercising independent choice in managing the value of "health." The need to distinguish between medically related relationships, as professionally organized, and legal relationships, within which parties construct behavioral trajectories under their own responsibility based on motivation and interest, has been identified.