Limitation period

A notice of injury must be submitted within three years of the injured party being informed or ought to have been informed of the injury.

Sometimes, it is possible that the patient only learns about the injury a long time after it occurs.

A notice of injury received after the expiry of the three-year period can only be investigated under special circumstances. However, compensation must be applied for in any case within no more than ten years after the incident leading to the injury (until 30 April 1999, the expiry period was 20 years).

1) Resurgery

An operation had been performed on a middle-aged woman in May 2010 due to carpal tunnel syndrome, and according to the procedure record, it had been carried out appropriately. In spite of this, the symptoms in her hand continued. It is always possible for symptoms to continue even after a successful operation, and as such, it does not entitle someone to compensation from patient insurance. Resurgery of the wrist had to be made in November 2013, and in it, it was found that the tissues had not been opened sufficiently in the first operation and that the continuation of the symptoms was probably caused by that.

Because the woman had only been informed of the insufficiency of the operation after the resurgery in November 2013, she can submit a notice of injury concerning an insufficient operation performed in 2010 in 2015, even though the operation was performed over three years earlier.

2) Magnetic resonance imaging after surgery

A young male underwent an operation for a herniatic disk on 26 August 2008, after which pain emerged in both his lower back and left leg. He underwent a magnetic resonance imaging study in May 2010, finding scar tissue in the operated area, which was likely to cause the symptoms. He requested compensation for the surgery by way of a notice of injury received on 30 January 2014. He should have understood at the doctor's visit after the MRI in May 2010 that the pains in his lower back and leg were connected to his previous operation and submit a notice of injury within three years of the doctor's visit after the imaging study.

Because the notice of injury concerning the matter was only received later by the Patient Insurance Centre, it was not possible to investigate it.