Patient’s rights in Finland
As a patient, you have the right to good care and treatment in healthcare. You also have the right to participate in decisions concerning your treatment and the right to receive information about your treatment.
Right to good care and treatment
You have the right to good healthcare and medical care. Healthcare professionals must respect your beliefs, privacy and dignity while providing treatment. Whenever possible, your mother tongue, culture and individual needs must be taken into account during your treatment.
Healthcare services must not discriminate patients based on their age, state of health or disability, for example. Only medical reasons may affect treatment decisions.
Your opinion must be considered during treatment
You can refuse a treatment or procedure if you want. If you refuse a treatment, care must be provided in another medically acceptable manner, if possible.
You cannot receive any type of treatment that you may desire. The final decision on the treatment is always made by a doctor on medical grounds. This means that you cannot insist on a particular treatment.
You may refuse treatment even if your state of health requires it. The doctor must explain to you in an understandable manner what the refusal means. If you continue to refuse the treatment, the refusal is recorded in the patient records.
You must be provided with information concerning your state of health and treatment
Healthcare professionals must be proactive in providing you with information concerning your state of health. You have the right to receive information on different treatment alternatives and their effects and possible detriments. You also have the right to know all factors that may be significant when the decision concerning your treatment is made.
The information about your state of health and treatment must be provided in a manner that allows you to understand it. If you and the treatment personnel do not have a common language, the healthcare provider must arrange for interpretation when necessary.
You have the right to check the information in your patient records. You can request corrections if the information is incorrect. Submit the request to the healthcare unit that recorded the information. You can view your patient data in the MyKanta service. You can also record advance health care directives and register as an organ donor in the MyKanta service.
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The opinion of underage patients must be taken into account
The opinion of underage patients must be taken into account in their treatment whenever it can be considered feasible in view of their age and level of development.
If an underage patient is able to decide on their treatment, they may forbid the provision of information concerning their state of health and treatment to their custodian or other legal representative. Healthcare professionals will evaluate whether a child or young person is able to decide on their own treatment.
If an underage patient cannot decide on their own treatment, they must be treated in cooperation with their custodian or other legal representative. The custodian has no right to forbid a treatment that is required in order to avoid a risk to the patient’s life or health.
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If the patient cannot decide on their treatment, the consent of a next of kin is required for important treatment procedures
If a patient of legal age is unable to make decisions about their treatment, the consent of another person is required for important treatment procedures. The consent can be given by the patient’s next of kin, other person close to the patient or the patient’s legal representative.
- Primarily, the aim is to determine how the patient would want to be treated.
- If the patient has provided an earlier statement regarding their desired treatment and this can be reliably verified, it must be followed.
- If the next of kin forbid a treatment, the patient must be cared for in another medically acceptable way, if possible.
- The person from whom consent is sought will receive any information concerning the patient’s state of health that is required for making the decision.
- If the opinion of the patient’s next of kin or legal representative cannot be established, the patient shall be treated in a manner that is in their best interests. This also applies when the next of kin have differences of opinion.
- The patient’s next of kin have no right to forbid a treatment that is required in order to avoid a risk to the patient’s life or health.
Committing a patient to involuntary psychiatric care
A person of legal age can be committed to involuntary psychiatric care
- if they are determined to be mentally ill, and
- if failure to commit them into an institution would substantially worsen their mental illness or present a severe risk to their health or safety, and
- if other mental health services are unsuitable or insufficient as forms of treatment.
A person can also be committed to involuntary treatment if they can be considered a severe risk to the health or safety of others. Involuntary care is always provided in a hospital.
An underage person can be committed to involuntary psychiatric hospital care if they require treatment for a severe mental disorder. They can be committed to hospital care if other mental health services unsuitable as forms of treatment and if failure to commit them into an institution would substantially worsen their mental illness or present a severe risk to their health and safety or that of others. Severe mental disorders include, for example, severe behavioural disorders, suicidal behaviour or eating disorders.