As a patient, you have the right to participate in decision-making about your health to the extent possible. Thus, your consent is a prerequisite for any medical intervention.
Every patient has a right to either give informed consent or to fully or partly refuse medical treatment. A patient also has a right to choose a doctor or a medical institution.
Consent to medical treatment
As a patient, you can receive only such medical treatment to which you have consented.
Informed consent is your decision to receive medical treatment that is taken freely after being fully informed about the treatment’s objectives, risks, benefits, (potential) side effects, consequences and methods used. You can provide this in oral or written form or by conduct.
example You do not fully understand what the medical procedure includes. You have the right to ask questions and receive an explanation before you consent to treatment. The doctors have an obligation to provide a more precise and understandable explanation to you.
Medical treatment without a patient’s (or their representative’s) consent is illegal. However, in case of emergency, where delay may endanger a patient’s life and it is not possible to receive consent, doctors have the right to perform necessary procedures.
If a patient is unable to provide consent (e.g., a child, a person with a limited ability to make decisions, or a severely ill person), it can be provided by another person, as prescribed by the law:
- the patient’s spouse,the parents of the patient
- the children of the patient
- a brother or sister of the patient
- other persons who are close to the patient may also be deemed to be immediate family if this can be concluded from the patient’s way of life
Refusal of medical treatment
A patient has the right to refuse medical treatment at any stage: before or during treatment. One can also refuse a specific method used in treatment.
example Doctors offer you medical treatment that you do not feel good about due to its potential risks. You have a right to refuse that treatment and ask for an alternative.
Right to choose a doctor and a medical institution
A patient also has the right to choose a medical professional and a medical institution.
example There is a clinic close to your home, but you would like to attend a different clinic. You have a right to choose where you will be treated.
However, this right is not absolute and has some exceptions. For example, in case of emergency, a patient may not have an opportunity to choose the doctor or the medical institution, because medical help needs to be provided as quickly and as effectively as possible.