Your rights as a patient

You can help us improve our operations  

• By giving candid feedback and by completing our customer satisfaction survey 
• By filing a patient safety event report 
• By filing an objection, notice of injury to Patient Insurance Center or a complaint; these are recourses available to you by law

Customer feedback

You can give us feedback on both your care and our activities in general. 

• Open feedback can be given anonymously either to a specific unit or generally to HUS as a whole. 
• The customer satisfaction survey is intended for patients and customers who have been treated at our units.

You can submit customer feedback here. 

Patient documents

We record information related to your treatment in patient documents. We only record the information necessary for your treatment. The HUS hospital employees who participate in your treatment and examination are allowed to access your patient information.  

Read more about patient records and your related rights.

Patient safety event report  

Your care may have included unexpected incidents, whether near misses or events causing actual harm. Personnel are always responsible for ensuring safe care, and if something goes wrong, it is important to find out why. 

If you, as a patient, notice a dangerous incident while in care, you can report it. It is easy to file a report, and you can do so anonymously if you wish. Please note that no individual response will be given to your report. We use these reports to improve our operations. 

You can file a patient safety event report online here.  

Objection

Under the Act on the Status and Rights of Patients (785/1992), if you are displeased with your care or how you have been treated, you may file a written objection using the form provided or in freeform. If you write a freeform objection, please nevertheless include the details indicated on the form. The director in charge of healthcare is responsible for processing the objection. The director will request the necessary reports from the persons who participated in the patient's care, and from the head physicians in charge of the unit.

Sign your objection and send it to: HUS Joint Authority, HUS Group’s Registry, PO Box 200, FI-00029 HUS.

Note! If you are planning to file an objection regarding your loved one’s care, please discuss the matter with the patient first, if possible. State in the objection that the patient is aware of you filing the objection and that they are unhappy with their treatment or care. If necessary, we will contact the patient to ask their view on the matter before the objection made by their next of kin is handled.

If you wish to receive the response to the objection as well, you must request a consent from the person using the form Consent to disclose patient records with which the patient authorises disclosing their information to you.

Patient injury report

In case of an actual or suspected patient injury caused in your care, as defined in the Patient Insurance Act (948/2019), you have the right to file a patient injury report. You must file a report with the Patient Insurance Centre within three years of the time when you were notified of the injury or when you should have become aware of it.  

Complaint

The authorities supervising health care services recommend that before filing a complaint you should discuss the matter with your place of care and file an objection instead. Complaints concerning matters that occurred more than two years earlier will not be considered unless there are special reasons to do so. You may file a complaint with the National Supervisory Authority for Welfare and Health (Valvira) if a case of suspected patient injury concerns a patient who has died or been seriously injured in care, or if there is a need to intervene in the right of a health care professional to practice. All other complaints are handled by the relevant Regional State Administrative Agency.

If necessary, you can turn to the patient ombudsman for advice on how to file an objection, a patient injury report or a complaint.

Patient ombudsmen at HUS

Claim for compensation

Material damage consists for instance of a patient losing a dental prosthetic or breaking their eyeglasses during treatment at a hospital as the result of an error or negligence committed by a staff member. In such cases, you may file a claim for compensation in writing. 

Liability for compensation is provided for in the Tort Liability Act.