Health
Health
Can a clinic hold you for not paying? The 'carta de garantía' trap and your rights
No. No health facility in Peru can detain you, hold your body or a deceased relative's body, or condition emergency care, to force payment while your insurer delays the 'carta de garantía' (guarantee letter): Article 70 of the Health Facilities Regulation bans it in absolute terms — 'terminantemente' (utterly forbidden). What they can do is bill you or pursue payment afterward, through normal channels.
✓ Verified against the official sourceCan a family member stay with you while you are in hospital in Peru?
No general law guarantees you a companion for your whole hospital stay. At EsSalud, a September 2026 resolution orders the insurer to regulate companionship by a close relative or a person you choose. For exams and surgery you can authorise someone to be present, if the doctor approves and you pay the costs.
✓ Verified against the official sourceCan a hospital in Peru move you to another hospital in an emergency without your consent, and who pays for the transfer?
If a facility cannot handle your emergency, it must stabilise you and refer you at once to a higher-level facility. You must be told why, and cannot be moved without your consent, unless there is a justified reason. The facility answers for your safety in transit and can bill your insurer if the transfer is covered.
✓ Verified against the official sourceCan I refuse treatment or leave hospital against medical advice in Peru?
Yes. As an adult you can refuse to start or continue a treatment, and you can decide to leave the hospital or clinic. The doctor must explain the consequences, and your decision is recorded in writing with your signature, which releases the doctor and the facility from liability. The exception: an emergency, or a risk to public health.
✓ Verified against the official sourceCan you be admitted for mental health care in Peru without your consent? Admission, rights and discharge under Ley 30947
As a rule, no. Peru's Mental Health Law requires your informed consent and treats hospitalization as an exceptional measure. The only exception is a psychiatric emergency in which you cannot express your will: your chosen support person signs or a court is asked to appoint one, and the order expires after 12 hours, up to 72.
✓ Verified against the official sourceCan you smoke or vape in a restaurant in Peru?
No, if the space has a roof and two or more walls: Ley N.º 32159 declares that a 100% smoke-free environment, and the ban covers both smoking and vaping. The place must post a visible sign saying so, and enforcement is split between the municipality and Minsa.
✓ Verified against the official sourceEsSalud vs EPS: how to choose, and what stays yours even if your employer signs up for an EPS
Your employer signing a private EPS health plan isn't a unilateral call: it requires an absolute majority vote of the workers, and you can individually opt to stay 100% with EsSalud even if the majority votes for the EPS. And whether you're in an EPS or not, EsSalud still covers high-complexity care, chronic disease management and your cash subsidies — the EPS only handles the routine stuff.
✓ Verified against the official sourceFood poisoning or spoiled food at a restaurant in Peru: who do you complain to?
You have two tracks, not one: your district municipality regulates and controls the venue's hygiene (Ley N.º 27972), and you can complain to Indecopi because the restaurant is responsible for the safety of what it sells (article 30 of Ley N.º 29571). The national health authority sets the sanitary standards above both.
✓ Verified against the official sourceInformed Consent and Medical Records: What Rights Patients Have in Peru
No medical or surgical treatment can be given without first explaining your diagnosis, treatment and its risks in terms you can understand. You also have the right to request a copy of your medical record — the facility must give it to you, though you pay the copying cost — and to be issued a certification of your health status whenever you need one. The law allows admitting you without your prior consent only in a psychiatric emergency where you cannot express your will.
✓ Verified against the official sourceMedical decisions for a minor child in Peru: how far does parental authority go?
Parents give consent for their child's treatment, but that power has limits. If they refuse a treatment, the doctor must notify a judge. In an emergency, their permission is not needed. And if no one is there to decide, the hospital must protect the child's health and notify the prosecutor's office.
✓ Verified against the official sourceOrgan donation in Peru: is everyone a donor? Presumed consent, your DNI and your family
On paper, yes. Law 31756 presumes you agree to donate your organs after death unless you refuse at Reniec, and your DNI records the choice. You can change it at any time. Objections by relatives or doctors are void, but the regulation still gives the close family a role in several cases.
✓ Verified against the official sourcePalliative care, refusing treatment and dying with dignity in Peru: what does the law say?
In Peru you can refuse to start or continue a treatment, have the natural process of your death respected if you are terminally ill, and receive palliative care. Euthanasia is still a crime (homicidio piadoso, article 112 of the Penal Code); the Ana Estrada case was a court exception for one person.
✓ Verified against the official sourcePatient complaints to SUSALUD: what to do when a clinic, your insurer or EsSalud fails you
You don't complain straight to SUSALUD. First you file a reclamo in the Libro de Reclamaciones en Salud of your IAFAS, IPRESS or UGIPRESS, which generally has 30 business days to resolve it plus 5 more to notify you. Only if you're unsatisfied, they refuse to attend you, or something was handled irregularly do you escalate to a free denuncia with SUSALUD directly — which can order a fix, but doesn't pay you: for that you need CECONAR or the courts.
✓ Verified against the official sourcePrivate health insurance denied your coverage in Peru: pre-existing conditions, undisclosed history and where to complain
Ask for the denial in writing, with reasons. If the insurer says you left something out of your health declaration, it must prove it, and it can void the policy only for intent or inexcusable fault. Complain to the insurer first; it has 15 business days. If it says no, go to SUSALUD, Indecopi or the Defensoría del Asegurado.
✓ Verified against the official sourceSecond medical opinion: is it a legal right in Peru?
Yes. Peru's General Health Law and its regulation give you the right to ask for the opinion of another doctor, from outside the facility, at any stage of your care. You must tell your treating doctor, who records it in your medical file. You or your insurance plan pay for it.
✓ Verified against the official sourceSIS health insurance in Peru: who qualifies and what it covers
Since 2019, Peru's public health insurance (SIS) is no longer only for people living in poverty: any resident of Peru who has no other health insurance can enroll for free in the "SIS Para Todos" plan, with no income or poverty screening required. Beyond that free plan, SIS has four others: SIS Gratuito (for people officially registered as poor or extremely poor, pregnant women, children under 5, and other groups), SIS Independiente and SIS Emprendedor (paid monthly or through the simplified tax regime), and SIS Microempresas. All of them cover more than 12,000 diagnoses, but you can only be treated at public Ministry of Health and regional-government facilities — not at EsSalud or private clinics.
✓ Verified against the official sourceSOAT and the hospital bill after a traffic accident in Peru: what SOAT pays and what your own insurance pays
The clinic or hospital must treat you and bill your medical expenses to the vehicle's SOAT, up to 5 UIT per person. The insurer may pay the clinic directly. SOAT pays first; your private insurance or social security covers what SOAT does not. The rules do not say who pays if you have no other cover.
Partly verifiedAt the pharmacy in Peru: can they sell you expired medicine, skip the prescription or swap your brand for a generic?
No pharmacy may sell expired medicine: Ley 29459 prohibits it. Dispensing must follow each drug's sale condition, prescription included. The pharmacist must offer you generics with the same active ingredient, strength and form, starting with generics sold under the INN, without pushing you: you choose.
Partly verifiedMedical malpractice in Peru: where to complain and what you can (and can't) get
There are two different paths and they don't give you the same thing. A complaint with SUSALUD is free and can get the facility fined or shut down, but — per press reporting, not confirmed against the official regulation itself — it does not pay you anything. For compensation, the path is a civil lawsuit, which usually needs a lawyer and has a two-year deadline from the event.
Partly verifiedRespectful childbirth in Peru: is there a law, and what rights do you have in labour?
Not yet. Peru has no law on humanised childbirth or obstetric violence; the bill in the previous Congress never reached a vote. You already have rights, though: dignified treatment and privacy, signing before a non-emergency caesarean, refusing examination by students and, in public-sector vertical births, choosing your position and a companion.
Partly verifiedThe epicrisis is free: what a clinic must give you at discharge at no cost
A copy of your epicrisis — the medical summary of your care, the document most often requested afterward for insurance or another procedure — is free: the facility cannot charge you for it. What does have a cost is requesting a full copy of your medical record (historia clínica), which must be delivered within five business days and whose reproduction cost you bear.
Partly verifiedVaccination in Peru: is it mandatory, and can you refuse?
Peru's General Vaccine Law makes vaccination mandatory, and the General Health Law allows exceptions only for medical or biological reasons. But the Ministry of Health's technical standard requires signed informed consent, from you or from a parent. When public health is at serious risk, refusal does not stand.