Rights & obligations

Patients have the right to be informed comprehensibly and appropriately about their state of health, about the planned examination measures, about the probable course of the illness and about the benefits and risks of the treatment. They can request access to their medical history at any time.

The prerequisite for any treatment and care is that the person with capacity^* patients consent to this. They also have the right to refuse treatment, cancel it or leave the hospital. If they refuse an intervention against medical advice, they take responsibility for this decision. The same applies if patients leave the hospital against medical advice.

^*Minors may also have the capacity to give consent to treatment. The capacity of judgement is not based on the patient's age, but on their mental capacity. In the case of adolescents/children who are capable of judgement, their sole consent is decisive.

Patients have the right to obtain a second opinion on a proposed treatment or diagnosis in cases of doubt and if there is no urgency for treatment.

UKBB employees are bound to confidentiality. Information about the patient's state of health will only be disclosed to third parties with the patient's consent (or if required by law). Consent to the provision of necessary medical information to referring physicians, persons providing further treatment and next of kin is presumed. Legal representatives or children who are capable of judgement have the opportunity to object to this presumption.

Patients with capacity of judgement have the right to specify in a living will what kind of care and treatment they would like to receive if they are no longer able to express their wishes. They can state whether and which medical measures they would refuse in an emergency or whether they would make themselves available as an organ donor.

Patients are obliged to contribute to a successful course of treatment. This includes, for example, providing the responsible specialists with information that is as complete and truthful as possible. Furthermore, they and their relatives are obliged to House rules and to show consideration for other patients.