Complaint about medical treatment (Austria)
Published byDocMuse
This document is in German
The PDF you download is in German — that is the language it has to be filed in, so it is not translated. Everything on this page is here to tell you what it says.
One letter for five routes in Austria after medical treatment you are unhappy with: a complaint to the practice or hospital itself; a request to the patients' advocate (Patientenanwaltschaft) of the Land where it is, to examine and mediate; an application to the medical chamber's conciliation board (Schlichtungsstelle); an application to the Land's patient compensation fund for harm in hospital; and a report to the disciplinary prosecutor at the Austrian Medical Chamber. A written request to the advocate or the board suspends limitation from its arrival, for up to 18 months (§ 58a ÄrzteG 1998, the Austrian Physicians Act). In German.
What you fill in
The details the document asks for.
- Complainant
- Complainant's address
- Phone
- Recipient (doctor's practice, hospital, patients' advocate, conciliation board, compensation fund or disciplinary prosecutor)
- Postal address of the complaint's recipient
- City
- Date
- Case number
- Patient
- Date of birth
- Healthcare provider (hospital, clinic)
- Doctor
- Period of treatment
- What happened: the treatment, the course of events and what you object to
- Where the letter goes and what it asks for
- Release from medical professional secrecy
Preview
This document is produced for you. Your answers are typed into it and the finished PDF is yours to keep.
Common questions
- What does a patients' advocate (Patientenanwaltschaft) do in Austria, and what does it cost?
- Every Land has an independent patients' advocate (Patientenanwaltschaft or Patientenvertretung) that takes no instructions (§ 11e KAKuG). It examines complaints, establishes the facts and mediates between you and the facility, free of charge to you. The office competent is that of the Land where the hospital or facility is, not where you live. Whether it also covers doctors' private practices is for each Land; in Vienna it does.
- Why should a complaint about treatment in Austria be in writing and signed?
- A written request for mediation to the patients' advocate or the medical chamber's conciliation board suspends the limitation period for damages claims from the day it arrives there, for at most 18 months (§ 58a Abs 2 and 3 ÄrzteG 1998). A phone call suspends nothing. Claims become time-barred three years after you learn of the harm and who caused it, and after 30 years at the latest (§ 1489 ABGB). So send the letter signed, by registered post, or hand it in against a receipt.
- What is the medical chamber's conciliation board (Schlichtungsstelle) in Austria?
- A board at the Land's medical chamber that examines, outside court, whether an error was made in treatment, and tries to reach a settlement. A judge chairs it, with a medical expert. It is free for patients and voluntary for both sides. If the board uses its own form, fill that in and attach this letter as your account of events.
- When does the patient compensation fund in Austria pay?
- The Länder's patient compensation funds can compensate patients harmed during treatment in a publicly funded hospital where the hospital's liability is not clear (§ 27a KAKuG and Land law). There is no legal right to a payment. Each Land sets its own deadlines, caps and procedure; in several Länder the application goes through the patients' advocate, and some use a form of their own.
- What does a report to the disciplinary prosecutor (Disziplinaranwalt) of the Austrian Medical Chamber do?
- The disciplinary prosecutor at the Austrian Medical Chamber examines whether a doctor has committed a disciplinary offence, for example by damaging the standing of the profession through conduct towards patients, or by breaching professional duties (§ 136 ÄrzteG 1998). If so, the prosecutor brings a disciplinary charge before the disciplinary commission, which decides. The proceedings concern the doctor's professional conduct.
How you can sign this document
- Print it and sign by hand. The signature lines in the document are left blank on purpose — sign on them in ink.
- Sign it yourself with a qualified electronic signature. If you already hold a QES — Evrotrust, B-Trust, StampIT, ZealiD or any qualified provider on the EU Trusted List, on a card, a USB token, in a mobile app or in the cloud — our signing guide explains step by step how to sign this exact file without invalidating it. Step-by-step help, and a way to check it worked
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