Treatment injuries and patient insurance

The Patient Insurance Centre centrally manages compensation for treatment injuries taking place in Finland.

Each public and private healthcare unit operating in Finland must have patient insurance. Patient insurance covers healthcare and medical care for all patients receiving treatment in Finland.

Patient insurance covers detriments due to treatment

The Patient Insurance Centre uses the injury report and their own analyses to determine whether the injury is of a nature that will be covered by patient insurance.

• The Finnish patient insurance covers all treatment provided in Finland’s public and private healthcare.
• Patient insurance covers detriments due to injuries caused by treatment, infection, accident or equipment failure.
• Patient insurance will also cover detriments caused by the facilities at the place of treatment or accidents in medicine delivery.
• Finnish patient insurance does not cover treatment provided abroad. Exceptions to this are situations in which public healthcare has arranged treatment abroad as an outsourced service. Read more on the Patient Insurance Centre website.

Patient insurance will not cover the consequences when:

• The consequences are among the possible risks of the examination or treatment
• The treatment has not generated the desired outcome
• The detriment is minor
• The treatment has been provided outside of Finland.

Independent healthcare practitioners and companies take out patient insurance from an insurance company. Public healthcare may take out patient insurance from either an insurance company or the Patient Insurance Centre. All insurance companies involved in patient insurance activities are members of the Patient Insurance Centre.

Compensation must be applied for within three years of the injury

The injury report must be filed within three years from the date when you received, or should have received, information concerning the injury. It is possible to apply for compensation later due to a specific reason; however, this must be done at the latest after ten years from the treatment.

All healthcare units have a patient ombudsman who can assist you in making a treatment injury report.

You can collect the injury report form from the Patient Insurance Centre, patient ombudsman or healthcare unit.

Compensation for treatment injury

Treatment injury is the most typical type of accident covered by patient insurance. Treatment injury is a personal injury that is due to an examination, treatment or other similar procedure performed on the patient or neglect thereof. Other similar procedures refer to vaccinations, giving blood and donating organs, for example. Injuries due to errors in prescribing medicine may also be covered as treatment injuries.

The prerequisite for compensation for treatment injury is that an experienced healthcare professional would have acted differently in the treatment or examination situation in question, thereby avoiding the injury. A treatment injury may be, for example, a complication resulting from a surgery, such as nerve damage, or an erroneous diagnosis that an experienced healthcare professional could have avoided.