Giving feedback or making a complaint on a treatment or service

If you think that there have been errors, deficiencies or near-miss incidents in the care and services provided to you or someone close to you, you should bring this up with personnel immediately. You can also file a safety incident report, if appropriate.  

Report a safety incident(Link leads to external service)

A deficiency refers to a safety incident or a deficiency in the safety and quality of services provided to clients and patients.

A safety incident refers to an incident that endangers the safety of a client or patient, either by causing actual harm or by having the potential to cause to the person. A safety incident can be a near miss, an incident where the client is almost harmed, but the situation is corrected before this happens.  

An adverse event is an unintended event in the care process that results in harm to the client. Deficiencies, safety incidents and near misses may relate things such as lack of clarity regarding the client’s care, services or medication, incidents of inappropriate behaviour, or issues in access to a service.  

Filing a report is easy and is done anonymously. To ensure the necessary data protection, do not include your personal identity code or other sensitive information in the reporting form. You will not receive a separate response to the submitted report.  

Your report is forwarded for processing to a health and social services professional. We use the reports we receive to improve the safety and quality of our services and to prevent the reported incidents from happening again.

A safety incident report is not the same as an objection or a complaint. If you are dissatisfied with the service, care or treatment you have received, you can file a formal objection or complaint.  

As part of the self-monitoring reporting on our website, we regularly publish information also on the development measures taken to address the safety incidents reported by clients and patients. 

An objection is a way for you to communicate your dissatisfaction to the management of the treatment facility that treated you or the service point that served you. An objection is a procedure defined in the Act on the Status and Rights of Patients and the Act on the Status and Rights of Social Welfare Clients.

Prepare and submit your objection in writing, using your own words. For a specific reason, you may also submit an objection orally. The management of the treatment facility or service point will reply to your objection in writing within roughly a month. If your objection requires more extensive investigation, its processing may take one to two months.

In response to your objection, you will receive a reply detailing how the case has been investigated and what further actions have been taken on account of the objection. Additionally, you will be advised on how you can take the matter forward, if necessary.

You can also submit an objection on behalf of your family member or friend. Before you submit an objection, we recommend that you discuss the matter with the persons who treated or served you or with their supervisors.

A Social Welfare and Patient Ombudsperson can assist you with preparing the objection, if necessary. Submitting an objection does not prevent you from submitting a complaint to a supervisory authority.

For services provided by the City of Helsinki, you can send an objection to the City of Helsinki Registrar's Office. In the case of private healthcare and social welfare services, the objections must be delivered to the person in charge of the unit in question.

Fill in the objection form and send it as an attachment to a secure email to helsinki.kirjaamo@hel.fi(Link opens default mail program). You can also print out and fill in the form and take it to the City of Helsinki Registrar’s Office.

Fill in the objection form

Send the objection form as an attachment to a secure mail(Link leads to external service)

If you suspect that there has been an error or neglect in the treatment or service you have received, you can submit a complaint to a supervisory authority. You can also submit a complaint on another person’s behalf. 

The supervisory authorities are:

• the Regional State Administrative Agency for Southern Finland
• the National Supervisory Authority for Welfare and Health (Valvira)
• the Parliamentary Ombudsman
• the Chancellor of Justice of the Government.

In most cases, complaints are processed by the Regional State Administrative Agency. If you suspect that your family member has died or been injured because of medical malpractice, please submit a complaint to Valvira.

A complaint cannot be used to change a treatment decision or decisions made by authorities. If you suspect that an authority or official has not acted in accordance with the law or fulfilled their responsibilities, you may submit a complaint to the Parliamentary Ombudsman or the Chancellor of Justice of the Government.

A Social and Patient Ombudsperson can advise you if you are considering submitting a complaint. Before you submit a complaint, we recommend that you discuss the matter with the persons who treated or served you or submit an objection.

Read more

Filing a complaint to the Regional State Administrative Agency(Link leads to external service)

Filing a complaint about health care and social welfare to Valvira (National Supervisory Authority for Welfare and Health)(Link leads to external service) (in Finnish)

Filing a complaint to the Parliamentary Ombudsman(Link leads to external service)

Filing a complaint to the Chancellor of Justice of the Government(Link leads to external service)

If you suspect that a patient injury has occurred during your treatment, you can seek monetary compensation from the Patient Insurance Centre.

Patient injury refers to such things as injuries caused during treatment. One example of this would be a complication occurring after surgery that an experienced professional could have prevented. Patient injury also refers to infections occurring during treatment or personal injuries caused by faulty treatment equipment, for example.

The general rule is that you can seek damages within three years of when you first knew, or should have known, of the injury.

You can also submit a notice of patient injury on a family member’s behalf.

Read more about notice of injury(Link leads to external service)

You can submit an appeal against a decision made by a social worker to the City of Helsinki’s Social Services and Health Care Committee. More detailed appeal instructions are appended to the decision provided to you. Please deliver your request for an administrative review to the City of Helsinki Registrar’s Office.

As for decisions made by the Social Services and Health Care Committee, you can submit your appeal against such decisions to the Administrative Court or, in some cases, to the Supreme Administrative Court of Finland.

If an employee of the City of Helsinki’s healthcare and social services has caused damage or injuries to you or your family member when carrying out their work responsibilities, you can seek compensation from the City. Material damage is the primary type of damage compensated for. 

Fill in a compensation claim and send it as an attachment to an encrypted email to the Registrar's Office. You can also print out the form, fill it and take it to theCity of Helsinki Registry.

Fill in the application form (in Finnish)

Send the form to the Registry as an attachment to an encrypted email(Link leads to external service)