How to claim compensation for medical error after receiving a report from DHA?

Dear Questioner,

Article 18 of Federal Decree-Law No. 4 of 2016 regarding medical liability, effective from 15/8/2016, states that:

"A medical liability committee called the Medical Responsibility Committee shall be established by the decision of the Minister or the head of the health authority, as circumstances require. The executive regulations shall determine its formation, rules, and procedures of operation. This committee, exclusively, shall consider complaints referred to it by the health authority, the public prosecutor, or the court, and determine the occurrence, severity, and magnitude of medical errors... The provisions of Federal Law No. 7 of 2012 shall apply to this committee, provided they do not conflict with the provisions of this Decree-Law. Compensation claims filed due to medical liability shall only be admissible after resorting to and referring to the medical responsibility committees, in accordance with the provisions of this Decree-Law."

Furthermore, Article 20 of the same law states that:

"The complainant and the complained-against practitioner may object to the report issued by the Medical Responsibility Committee through a formal grievance submitted to the relevant health authority within thirty days from the date of notification of the report, in accordance with the procedures defined by the executive regulations. It is the responsibility of the competent health authority to refer the report, along with all related documents and papers, to the Supreme Committee for Medical Responsibility established under Article 21 of this Decree-Law. If no objection is made within the specified period in the first paragraph of this Article, the committee's report shall be considered final. In this case, no appeal against the medical reports issued by the committee shall be accepted before any entity."

Lastly, Article 21 of the same law states:

"The Supreme Committee for Medical Responsibility, called the 'Higher Committee for Medical Responsibility,' shall be established by the decision of the Council of Ministers, based on the proposal of the Minister of Health and Community Protection after coordination with other relevant health authorities. The decision shall determine its formation, rules, procedures, membership duration, and the rewards granted to its members. This committee, exclusively, shall consider appeals against the reports of the medical responsibility committees established under this Decree-Law. It shall issue a causative report expressing its opinion on each appeal, in accordance with the procedures and rules determined by the aforementioned decision of the Council of Ministers. The committee's report shall be considered final. No appeal against the medical reports issued by this committee shall be accepted before any entity."

These provisions indicate that the legislature has assigned the Medical Responsibility Committee, as stipulated in the aforementioned Decree-Law, the task of providing an opinion on the existence of medical errors, their causes, the resulting damages, the causal relationship between the error and the damage, and the percentage of disability, if any, in the affected patient's organ, along with expressing an opinion on any other matters required in this regard.

The law also regulates the review process of the committee's decisions and grievances before the Supreme Committee for Medical Responsibility.

The report issued by this committee is considered final and not subject to appeal before any entity.

As a result, compensation claims filed before the courts due to medical liability are only admissible after resorting to and referring to the medical responsibility committees and obtaining their final report, in accordance with the provisions of this Decree-Law.

Dear questioner,

With the report at hand, your case should be very strong. However, determining how much compensation you should be paid depends on two main factors:

1. The disability ratio. You should have by this time (if not, then you can easily obtain) a disability ratio medical report identifying the percentage of disability in your finger caused by the said medical error.

2. Payments made to recover, as well as to prove the medical error.

As mentioned above, those are the two main factors. There are a few other factors not of the same importance.

The next step is to file the case with the court against the hospital.

To do this, you should prepare a statement of claim, have all documents legally translated, file them with the court, and then pay the court fees to initiate the case.

For more information, please contact us via WhatsApp.

Dear Questioner,

The compensation will depend upon several reasons such as the earning capacity of the person, life expectancy, the injury, etc.

We will discuss more on this on a legal consultation session for a charge of 100$. Do confirm if you want to go with the service.