Your Rights at the Doctors and in Hospital
Patients who are well informed about their rights can participate actively in the treatment proposed to them and build a quality relationship with healthcare professionals.
Note
We cannot offer personal advice. Please refer to the page Options of Counselling and contact the appropriate office. Many thanks.
The Right to Information
Rights to information about your health, investigations and treatments, consequences and risks, financial aspects and the option of a second opinion and rights relating to residential and nursing home contracts – find out more here.
Right of Free Choice
You can generally specify the healthcare professional and hospital. Are the costs covered if you have to find a hospital outside the canton where you live? Can you freely choose a care home? Find out the answers here.
Measures of Restraint and Treatment without Consent
Restrictive measures and treatments without consent are prohibited as a rule. If they are nevertheless arranged: How are they documented? How can such arrangements be opposed?
Professional or medical secrecy
All health-related information must be treated in confidence – including after death. Under what circumstances may a doctor forward information? Find out here.
Right of Access to Case File
You are entitled to view your patient record. Does this include handwritten notes? What do you need to do if you wish to change your doctor? How long will the record be kept? What happens to it after death?
Right to be Accompanied
Patients in hospital are entitled to receive assistance and advice, including from an external person. How are visiting rights regulated. Do any exceptions apply? Read here to find out.
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Federal Office of Public Health FOPH
Health Equity Section
Schwarzenburgstrasse 157
Switzerland - 3003 Bern