Your rights as a patient

1. Patients Rights Act

Since August 22, 2002, Belgian law has protected your rights in your relationship with your healthcare provider. This law applies to every healthcare provider: dentists, physicians, dental hygienists, and their teams. Below is the essence.

2. Right to high-quality service provision

You have the right to careful, high-quality care tailored to the current state of science and your specific situation. We work according to clear protocols and continue our education. No treatment can be refused for purely financial, philosophical, ideological, or other non-medical reasons, except for the exceptions provided by law.

3. Right to free choice of healthcare provider

You choose your own healthcare provider and you can revise that choice at any time. Nüvodent employs multiple general dentists and specialists. You can indicate with whom you would like to continue working, insofar as practical organization permits.

4. Right to information about your state of health

You have the right to all information that helps you understand your state of health and the expected evolution. We explain that information in understandable language, without unnecessary jargon.

If you prefer not to be informed, we will respect that, except when we are legally required to share certain information, or when failing to communicate it could cause serious harm to your health or that of third parties.

5. Right to free and informed consent

No treatment starts without you having freely and informedly consented after a clear explanation. For each proposed treatment, the healthcare provider explains:

• What the treatment entails
• What the purpose and potential risks are
• What alternatives exist, with their pros and cons
• What the estimated costs are and what financial consequences are associated with them
• How urgent the treatment is and what happens if it is not performed

You always have the right to refuse treatment or withdraw previously given consent. Your decision will be included in your file.

6. Right to a carefully maintained patient file

Your healthcare provider keeps a patient file, on paper or digitally. This contains, among other things, the anamnesis, clinical examination, imaging, treatment plans, procedures, follow-up, and correspondence with other healthcare providers. In accordance with the law, that file is kept for at least 30 years after the last patient contact.

7. Right of access and to a copy of the file

You can view your file at any time and request a copy of it. Personal notes from the healthcare provider and data concerning third parties are excluded from this right. Your request may be made verbally, in writing, or by email. We will respond to you within 15 days.

Following the death of a patient, the spouse, partner, and relatives up to the second degree can, under certain conditions, obtain indirect access through a healthcare provider designated by them.

8. Right to respect for your private life

What you discuss with your healthcare provider remains confidential. Health data is only shared with healthcare providers who are treating you, or in cases required by law. You can read more details in our privacy policy.

9. Right to pain management

You have the right to the most appropriate care to prevent, assess, treat, and alleviate pain. Before, during, and after every procedure, we will discuss the anesthesia or pain relief we are providing.

10. Right to complaint mediation

If you have a complaint about the care you received, it is best to discuss it first with your treating healthcare provider, or send an email to melding@nuvodent.be. We listen, explain, and find a solution together.

If we cannot reach an agreement between ourselves, you can appeal to official complaint mediation, independent of Nüvodent. For ambulatory healthcare providers such as dentists, this is the Federal Ombudsman Service for Patients' Rights.

11. Representation

For minors, the parents or the guardian exercise the patient rights, depending on the age and maturity of the child. As the child grows older, they are increasingly involved in the exercise of their rights.

For adults who cannot exercise their rights themselves, for example due to mental incapacity, a representative can act. The law establishes a fixed order for this:

1. A confidential counselor whom the patient has designated in writing beforehand
2. In the absence thereof: the cohabiting spouse or partner
3. Next: an adult child, a parent, a brother, or a sister
4. If that order also does not work, the treating healthcare provider will act themselves, in multidisciplinary consultation and in the interest of the patient

Learn more

The full text of the Patients' Rights Act and the accompanying explanatory memorandum can be found on the FPS Public Health website., www.health.belgium.be.

13. Contact