If you believe that a medical professional or medical institution have not provided you with adequate or appropriate quality medical care or have acted neglectfully, you can turn to your patient rights representative, who can provide you with advice, support and representation in safeguarding your rights under the Patients’ Rights Act, free of charge and in a confidential setting.
The patient rights representative can also provide professional assistance in exercising rights in the field of health insurance.
Seek further information on contacting your patient rights representative.
You may also initiate a complaint procedure for dealing with violations of patient’s rights. A patient rights representative may represent you in the procedure free of charge.
In certain situations, you may also submit an application to the Police and ask them to initiate a criminal investigation or you can submit an application to the Health Inspectorate who may in certain cases initiate an inspection.
You can also claim compensation from an insurance company when you have suffered a medical malpractice.
Complaint procedure
If you believe your patient’s rights have been violated by a medical professional or medical institution, you can initiate a complaint procedure. The complaint procedure is two-step.
example You were not provided with appropriate quality medical care during your pregnancy termination procedure.
Deadlines
First application due to allegedly inappropriate attitude of health care workers must be submitted no later than 15 days from the day the violation occurred.
First application due to allegedly inadequate medical treatment or care must be submitted no later than 30 days after the end of medical care.
If you find out about the violation or the consequences become apparent only later, you may submit the first request no later than within three months.
Application
In your application, you should include your personal and contact details, describe the situation you are complaining about in detail, including what the medical professional or medical institution have done or failed to do, which medical workers were present, time and place of the violation. You must also describe how these actions or omissions have harmed your reproductive health or violated your other patients’ rights. Optionally, you may include a proposal for resolving the dispute.
You should address your application to the competent person in the medical institution. The contact information of the competent person must be given in a visible place in each medical institution.
After receiving your application, the competent person may grant your request to resolve the dispute, refer you to another competent person, if your application relates to the exercise of health insurance rights or invite you to an oral hearing.
Oral hearing
At the oral hearing, the competent person will conduct a discussion with you and the involved medical professional. They might invite another expert who has the necessary knowledge in the field of the violation, and a review of medical documentation may also be performed.
The purpose of the oral hearing is primarily to conclude an agreement on the method of resolving the dispute, but this might not happen. In that case you have an option to turn to the Commission of the Republic of Slovenia for the Protection of Patients' Rights. Find out more about how to turn to the Commission.
Criminal procedure
If a medical professional has unlawfully failed to fulfil his/her professional duties or has fulfilled them negligently, and such offence has resulted in a significant deterioration in health, this is considered to be a criminal offence.
In such a situation, you can request the initiation of criminal proceedings by submitting an application to the Police or the State Attorney. In your application, you should describe the situation in detail, including, what the medical professional has done or failed to do, and explain the kind of harm that has been caused to your health. You may also submit the criminal complaint orally.
example If omission or negligence by a medical professional has caused the termination of your pregnancy, this will be considered to be a significant deterioration in health and you can request the initiation of criminal proceedings.
After receiving your application, the investigator may decide to commence criminal proceedings and in such a situation will contact you and inform you about your rights as a victim. You will also be informed about the possibility of requesting compensation for any material damages, or compensation for the bodily and moral harm that you have suffered.
note You can also submit an application to the Health Inspectorate. If, after detailed inspection, the Health Inspectorate suspects that these criminal offences may have taken place, it must forward the case materials to the police for criminal investigation. The Health Inspectorate may also establish that a minor offence has been committed and fine the perpetrator.