How to check a clinic before you book: practitioners, registration and inspection reports

By Markus Lien, clinical psychologist · October 24, 2026

Private clinics describe themselves freely in their marketing. What is not free are the titles, the authorisations and the inspections. Those sit in public registers at the Danish Patient Safety Authority (Styrelsen for Patientsikkerhed), and you can use them without logging in. Here is what you can look up, what you cannot, and what to ask the clinic instead.

1. Look the practitioner up in the authorisation register

The authorisation register at autregweb.stps.dk covers every health professional with Danish authorisation. You can search by name, authorisation ID, treatment site or address. For a person the result shows the professional group (for example doctor or psychologist) and the authorisation status, for example "Autorisation gyldig" (authorisation valid); under advanced search you can also filter by speciality and supervisory measures. Open the person: for a doctor the record also shows the date of the permission for independent practice and, under "Speciale", whether the doctor holds specialist recognition, for example "Psykiatri" with a date. For a doctor still in specialist training the field is empty. For a psychologist the permission "Psykolog med praksisuddannelse (klinisk psykolog)" appears in the same place. The register also shows current supervisory measures.

Since 1 January 2026 psychologists are authorised under the authorisation act, and the rule that kept authorised psychologists outside the Danish Patient Safety Authority's oversight under section 5 of the act has been repealed (act no. 716 of 20 June 2025, section 1(2)). Psychologists are therefore in the register too.

2. Titles: what the law protects

The authorisation act reserves a few titles for those who hold the authorisation or permission behind them. These are the ones to know:

• Læge (doctor). Only a person holding authorisation as a doctor may use the title (section 27(2)).
• Speciallæge (specialist doctor). A doctor may not use the title speciallæge without a specific permission, which is granted by the Danish Patient Safety Authority (section 30). The word psykiater (psychiatrist) is not in the act; in everyday language it means a speciallæge i psykiatri. So ask for the title speciallæge i psykiatri.
• Læge i hoveduddannelse i psykiatri (senior psychiatry resident). An authorised doctor in training to become a specialist. The doctor may state their training and position, but not use the protected titles (guidance no. 9319 of 2013, section 6.4).
• Psykolog (psychologist). From 1 January 2026 only a person holding authorisation as a psychologist may use the title (section 70 f(2)). The title psykolog med praksisuddannelse (klinisk psykolog) requires a specific permission from the Danish Patient Safety Authority (section 70 g). Anyone entitled to the title before 2026 may keep using it until the end of 2028 without authorisation, so the register lookup is the reliable route.
• Specialpsykolog and specialist. Two different designations. Specialpsykolog i psykiatri and Specialpsykolog i børne- og ungdomspsykiatri are designations for psychologists who have completed the specialist psychologist programme (executive order no. 1303 of 2010, section 18). From 2026 the minister may lay down rules on the designation specialpsykolog (section 70 g(4)), and use contrary to such rules is punishable by a fine (section 81(2)). Specialist in for example psychotherapy or psychopathology is the Danish Psychological Association's specialist programme: three years of practice, supervision and theory on top of the practice programme, with specialist approval from the association. It is not a title in the authorisation act.

At Alethia, Markus Lien and Mathias Glorvigen are authorised psychologists holding the clinical psychologist permission, Rasmus Wæhrens and Robert Bering are specialists in psychiatry, and Rafl Adnan and Markus Hjorth are senior psychiatry residents. All six are in the register with the status "Autorisation gyldig"; see the team.

3. The clinic: registration and responsible doctor

As a rule, treatment sites must be registered with the Danish Patient Safety Authority before they start treating (executive order no. 519 of 2025, section 1(3)). The rules for clinics where only psychologists treat take effect during 2026; a clinic with doctors must already be registered. You look the clinic up in the same search field of the authorisation register as the practitioners: search for the clinic's name or address, and the result shows the clinic and its medically responsible physician. Only clinics with a responsible physician (and cosmetic clinics) appear. If you cannot find the clinic, ask it how it is registered.

When more than one doctor treats patients at a private clinic, the clinic must appoint and register a medically responsible physician (virksomhedsansvarlig læge). The authority's 2024 guidance says explicitly that doctors in specialist training count as well. The responsible physician must hold the permission for independent practice and a relevant training for the clinic's field of activity; for a psychiatric clinic that corresponds to a specialist in psychiatry. The physician may be the owner, an employee or affiliated with the clinic, but must be registered with the Danish Patient Safety Authority and be regularly present at the clinic (section 6.2 of the guidance).

The authority registers and inspects treatment sites but does not approve them, and it says itself that marketing calling a clinic "approved by the Danish Patient Safety Authority" can be misleading. Alethia is registered as a specialist medical practice (speciallægepraksis), category 3, with Rasmus Wæhrens, specialist in psychiatry, as the medically responsible physician, and is listed with him as a treatment site in the authorisation register.

4. Inspection reports and orders are public

The Danish Patient Safety Authority publishes its inspection reports for three years. You can filter by treatment site, theme, region, municipality, sanction, type of inspection and year. Orders to treatment sites have their own list. If you find no report, no inspection of the clinic has been published within those three years.

5. Medication: who may start the treatment

The Danish Health Authority's guidance on prescribing dependence-producing medicines (no. 9523 of 2019, section 3.3.1) says of stimulant medication for ADHD that starting treatment is a specialist task, carried out as a rule by specialists in psychiatry or in child and adolescent psychiatry. Continued treatment can, after a concrete assessment, take place elsewhere, for example with the GP.

For children and young people under 18 it is a task for a specialist in child and adolescent psychiatry to assess whether medication is needed (guidance no. 9733 of 2019). So ask who starts the medication and whether that person is a specialist in psychiatry, and for young people under 18 a specialist in child and adolescent psychiatry.

6. Marketing has to be verifiable

The Danish act on marketing of health services requires marketing to be factual and free of incorrect, misleading or incomplete statements (section 2(1)). Factual statements must be documentable (section 2(4)), and it must be disclosed if an affiliated health professional is under a supervisory measure or has had their authorisation withdrawn or restricted for matters relevant to the marketed service (section 2(6)). The Danish Patient Safety Authority oversees this. You can ask the clinic for the documentation behind a title or a claim.

Five questions you can ask the clinic

• Who will assess me, and what is that person's authorisation and title?
• Is there a specialist in psychiatry, and who carries the medical responsibility?
• Who will start my medication, if any?
• How is the clinic registered as a treatment site, and who is the medically responsible physician? (can be looked up in the authorisation register)
• Does the clinic or its practitioners have inspection reports or orders?

If you are concerned

A concern about a treatment site or a health professional can be sent to the Danish Patient Safety Authority as a notification of concern. A complaint about a specific treatment goes to the Danish Agency for Patient Complaints (Styrelsen for Patientklager).

Sources

1. Autorisationsregistret, Danish Patient Safety Authority. Lookup by name, authorisation ID, treatment site or address; shows professional group and authorisation status, for treatment sites name, postcode and responsible physician (read 25 October 2026). Clinics with a medically responsible physician appear with the physician's name (guidance no. 9673 of 2024, section 5.1.2).
2. The authorisation act, consolidated act no. 1008 of 29 August 2024, section 5 (oversight), section 27(2) (doctor), section 30 (specialist doctor), sections 70 f and 70 g (psychologist, inserted by act no. 716 of 20 June 2025, in force 1 January 2026).
3. Act no. 716 of 20 June 2025 amending the authorisation act (psychologists), section 1(2) repeals the oversight exemption in section 5(3); section 8 repeals the psychologists act; section 10 transition rules to 31 December 2028.
4. Executive order no. 1303 of 25 November 2010 on the specialist training of psychologists in child and adolescent psychiatry and psychiatry, section 18.
5. The Danish Psychological Association’s specialist programmes (read 25 October 2026).
6. Guidance no. 9319 of 2013 on health professionals' use of titles, section 6.4.
7. Act on medically responsible physicians and dentists, consolidated act no. 1838 of 21 September 2021, sections 1-3, and the Danish Patient Safety Authority's guidance no. 9673 of 11 September 2024, sections 2.1.2, 3.1, 5.1.2, 6.1, 6.2 and 7.
8. Registration of treatment sites, Danish Patient Safety Authority (read 24 October 2026).
9. Executive order no. 519 of 2025 on registration of, notification about and supervision of public and private treatment sites, section 1(3) and section 4.
10. Oversight of marketing of health services, Danish Patient Safety Authority (read 25 October 2026).
11. Inspection reports and orders to treatment sites, Danish Patient Safety Authority (read 24 October 2026).
12. Danish Health Authority guidance no. 9523 of 19 June 2019 on prescribing dependence-producing medicines, section 3.3.1, and guidance no. 9733 of 9 July 2019 on medication for children and young people with mental disorders.
13. Act on marketing of health services (act no. 326 of 2003, section 2 as amended by act no. 360 of 2013), section 2(1), (4) and (6).