Patients' Representatives

The Patients' Ombudswoman’s Office is an independent* agency set up by the Province of Styria. It is there to help you with advice and information and, at your request, to represent your interests.

(*the office is exempted from the normal system of directives that applies in government departments)

Helpful brochures with more detailed information on a variety of topics may be obtained from the Patients' Ombudswoman:

• Power of Attorney in Health Matters (Stellvertretung in Gesundheitsangelegenheiten) (2000) Patients' Declarations (Patientenverfügungen) (2000)
• Pain (Über den Schmerz) (2000)
• Patients' Rights and Patients' Responsibilities in Hospital (Patientenrechte und Patientenverantwortung im Krankenhaus) (2001)

Ms. Renate Skledar, DGKS
Patients' Ombudswoman of the Province of Styria
Amt der Steiermärkischen Landesregierung
Rechtsabteilung 12
Trauttmansdorfgasse 2, 8010 Graz
Tel: (0316) 877-3350 or -3360

Patients’ Trustees are trustees who represent psychiatric patients who have to be treated in a closed psychiatric institution or department or whose mobility must be otherwise restricted according to the law on coercive measures for mentally ill people.

The patients’ trustees are independent of the hospitals; they are appointed by the courts. Futher information on the patients’ trustees and the law on coercive measures for the mentally ill can be obtained from the following addresses:

Patientenanwaltschaft Graz (Association of Patients’ Trustees and Court Trustees)
(Branch Office) University Clinic for Psychiatry
Auenbruggerplatz 31
8036 Graz
Tel: (0316) 373 110
Fax: (0316) 373 110