In Slovenian legal space, the accepted position is that the relationship between doctor and patient is of a contractual nature. The basis for regulating the rights and obligations between doctor and patient is the health services contract or the treatment contract, which the parties conclude before the implementation of medical care. It follows from the contract that the doctor's main obligation is to perform the agreed service, while the patient's main obligation is to pay for the service provided, either by himself or through health insurance funds. The doctor's obligation to treat has, in principle, the nature of an obligation of effort, since the doctor cannot commit himself to the success of the treatment. The question that remains unresolved in Slovenian law is what is the legal nature of the treatment contract. Older legal theory and jurisprudence took the position that a health services contract is by its nature an service contract, while newer legal theory and, consequently, also jurisprudence warned that this is not consistent with the doctor's obligation, which has the nature of an obligation of effort.
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