Patient's rights and patient safety

Under the law, you have a right to good health and medical care both in the public and the private health care systems and in social welfare institutions. The patient’s human dignity, religious and/or ethical beliefs and privacy should be respected. The patient’s native language, individual needs and culture should be considered as far as possible.

• Patient safety means that when you are a patient, you get the right kind of treatment at the right time, and the treatment causes you as little harm as possible. Some examples of harm are an incorrect or delayed diagnosis, medication errors or infections contracted during treatment.
• Non-discrimination means that no-one is treated differently because of their age, state of health, disability, place they live in, language, religion, ethnic background or other such feature.
• As a patient, you have the right to get all information that concerns your health. You have the right to see the saved information on you in MyKanta serviceOpens in a new window. and, in case of incorrect information, ask for corrections. Your information is not given to other people.
• As a patient, you have the right to decide and declare that you must not be given treatments you do not want or accept. If a patient is aged under 18, his or her opinion should always be taken into account if he or she is mature enough to hold an opinion.
• If you have to wait for treatment, you have a right to know when you will get it.
• As a patient, you have the right to question the way you are treated and cared for. If you feel you have a case for complaint, you can make an objection to the director in charge of the unit. You can also make a complaint to the authority responsible for supervising the unit. The Patient Ombudsman will help you.