Health services
You are entitled to receive essential health care in the municipality in which you reside or are currently based. You are also entitled to receive essential health care from specialist health services. The County Governor oversees these health services and handles appeals cases, in order to help you have access to the services to which you are entitled.
You can complain if your rights are not being met
You can complain if you believe that you are not receiving the health services to which you are entitled, or if you disagree with the health service’s assessment of your treatment needs. You should send your complaint to the person or body that made the disputed decision so that they have the chance to change their position. If your complaint is not upheld, it will be forwarded on to the County Governor for a final decision. The County Governor’s decision is final, and the health services in question will have to comply with this.
You can request that the County Governor assess whether the health services have fulfilled their obligations
The County Governor is also able to determine whether employees in health and care services have breached their duties in a way that has affected you. This is relevant to the majority of duties in the sector, and may, for example, relate to a lack of professional accountability or a breach of the professional’s duty of confidentiality. This may be requested by writing to the County Governor. In the case of particularly grave offences, the County Governor will forward the matter on to the Norwegian Board of Health Supervision, which can, among other things, caution the health-care personnel or make the decision to remove their licence to practice.
It is important to emphasise the fact that in such cases the County Governor’s assessment will have no direct effect on the complainant’s rights. Even if you have been treated in an irresponsible manner, you are not automatically entitled to compensation or new treatment. In one of the links to the right you can find more information on how to complain about health and care services.