Forty years have passed since the publication of the "Patients' Rights Charter" (included in a separate section at the end of the work: "Patients' rights: a critical guide to understanding and usage of civil hospital facilities"), but it still remains remarkably topical. We here provide an analysis of the original Charter (1975) taking into consideration the changes that have occurred in sensitivity to gender, cultural as well as socioeconomic differences, the right to body privacy and to continuity of care, the key role of general practitioners, the reciprocal relations in the information and decision-making processes with shared diagnostic and therapeutic pathways and active patient participation, which mandates that adequate education in communication and care strategies be provided to all caregivers.