Department of Health – Abu Dhabi (DOH): medical error investigations, suspension and remediation

Most cases begin with the DOH service Investigation Request for Medical Error. It lets a patient, an authorised representative holding a legal power of attorney, or a first-degree relative of a patient who has died ask DOH to investigate a medical error complaint against any licensed facility or professional in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. The request is made online through the DOH complaint management system, which accepts UAE PASS, with copies of Emirates ID and any medical reports. There is no fee, and DOH warns that an investigation "might take months, depending on the complaint's complexity and type of investigation required". The complainant receives the committee's report through the same system.

Other routes lead to the same committee. Under Article 18 of Federal Decree-Law No. 4 of 2016, the Medical Liability Committee decides complaints referred by the health authority, the Public Prosecution or the court, and courts and prosecutors must pass medical error cases to the health authority with their attachments (Cabinet Resolution No. 40 of 2019, Article 8). The same article lets the complainant amend or withdraw the complaint, or add documents, until the report is issued.

DOH also publishes a user guide and FAQs for healthcare professionals beside the complainants' guide on the service page. If you have been notified, download it and follow the response route it describes rather than replying informally to the patient or the facility.

Not every DOH case starts with a complaint. Abu Dhabi Law No. 10 of 2018, which established the Department of Health, gives DOH inspectors law-enforcement powers (Article 9), and several of DOH's published enforcement actions began with routine inspections.

The committee is formed by resolution of the head of the health authority from experienced doctors, and it can consult other specialties or set up technical sub-committees that advise but do not vote. Its jurisdiction is exclusive: it decides whether a medical error occurred, how serious it was, each contributor's share where several are involved, the cause, the damage, the causal link and any percentage of disability (Article 18). Courts will not accept a compensation claim for medical liability unless the matter has first been through the committee.

The legal test for a medical error

Article 6 defines a medical error as one committed through ignorance of technical matters any practitioner of the same grade and specialty is expected to know, failure to follow recognised professional and medical standards, failure to exercise due diligence, or negligence and lack of care and precaution.

When an error is gross

Under Cabinet Resolution No. 40 of 2019 (Article 5), a gross medical error is one that causes death, foetal death, removal of an organ by mistake, loss of an organ's function or other serious damage, together with one aggravating feature: unpardonable unfamiliarity with established standards, an unrecognised method, unjustified deviation from the rules, practising under the influence of alcohol or drugs, gross negligence (leaving an instrument in the body, for example), deliberately practising beyond your specialty or clinical privileges, or using a technique without prior training or supervision. Classifying an error as gross needs a two-thirds vote of the members present, and the report must name the criterion relied on. It matters because the criminal penalties for medical error in Article 34 of the Decree-Law apply only to gross errors.

When there is no liability

Article 17 rules out liability where the damage did not result from one of the Article 6 causes, where the patient caused it (for example by refusing treatment or ignoring instructions), where you followed a different method that conforms to generally accepted medical standards, or where a recognised or unexpected complication occurred without error. A well-documented record of consent, reasoning and follow-up is usually what makes these defences available.

DOH's Appeal request for medical error complaint service is open to both sides: the complainant and the healthcare provider. The rules are short and strict:

• Deadline: within 30 days of receiving the report.
• Fee: AED 5,000, with payment instructions sent by SMS from the Ministry of Health and Prevention.
• Content: a detailed request that identifies the specific points you contest.
• Decision maker: the Higher Medical Liability Committee at the Ministry of Health and Prevention.
• Timing: no set time frame; the decision report arrives by registered email.

Federal law calls this body the Supreme Committee of Medical Liability (Article 21; Cabinet Resolution No. 14 of 2020). Its members are medical consultants, it may uphold, amend or cancel the first report, and its decision is final. If nobody appeals within 30 days, the first report becomes final and cannot be challenged before any other authority (Article 20).

An appeal earns its fee only if it engages with the committee's reasoning. Identify the paragraph you dispute, the standard or published evidence that supports your position, and any part of the record the committee did not consider. Repeating your original account is unlikely to change the outcome on its own; an independent expert opinion arranged through your insurer or lawyer can help.

Administrative action runs in parallel with the liability process and does not wait for it. These are the instruments a decision against a DOH-licensed professional can rest on:

Under both federal laws no penalty may be imposed until you have been heard and allowed to present a defence, although staying away without an acceptable excuse does not stop a decision. DOH's 2026 enforcement announcement also cites "Articles 24, 25, 26, 27, and 28 of the disciplinary regulations governing the healthcare sector in Abu Dhabi" without giving the regulation's full title, so ask DOH to identify the exact provision behind any decision you receive.

• While a liability report is pending: the health authority may temporarily suspend a licence for up to 30 days at a time, renewable, while the committee report is awaited or other violations are investigated (Federal Decree-Law No. 4 of 2016, Article 23).
• Pending a criminal referral: in March 2026 DOH temporarily closed five facilities and suspended the licences of all staff involved pending referral to the Public Prosecution, after finding paid sick leave certificates issued without examination, manipulated medical records and official documents, and unlicensed practitioners.
• Renewal: the DOH Licensing Procedural Manual states that healthcare professionals with suspended licences cannot apply for renewal, and a licence expired or cancelled for more than five years needs a new registration.
• Criminal protection for clinical errors: no investigation, arrest or detention may take place over a medical error until the health authority has issued a final report confirming a gross medical error (Article 24). That protection is about clinical error; it does not cover fraud, forged documents or record manipulation, and the 2026 cases, which concerned sick leave and records, were referred to the Public Prosecution directly.

Two threads run through all three. First, the heaviest outcomes followed failures of documentation and honesty rather than of clinical skill alone. Second, action fell on individual professionals as well as on facilities: doctors referred for investigation, staff licences suspended, practitioner licences restricted. On these examples, following a clinic's routine did not protect the individual professional.

1. Read the notice and the professionals' user guide. Note the date of receipt and every deadline: 30 days for an appeal against a committee report, 15 or 60 days for a grievance against a penalty depending on the instrument.
2. Make sure the incident is on the facility system. The DOH Incident Reporting and Management Standard (version 2, December 2024) requires staff to report incidents in the facility's electronic system within 24 hours of discovery, and sentinel events go to DOH within 48 hours. The standard says reporting will not lead to disciplinary proceedings except in the most exceptional circumstances; an unreported incident is far harder to explain later.
3. Involve your insurer and facility management. The facility owner must insure its practitioners against civil liability for medical errors and pay the premiums (Federal Decree-Law No. 4 of 2016, Article 26). Ask how your facility notifies a claim and whether the policy funds legal or expert support.
4. Preserve the record. Do not add, edit or remove entries after the event except through your facility's formal correction process. Electronic record systems typically log every change, and DOH has suspended staff for manipulating records.
5. Use the facility's disclosure process. DOH requires facilities to have a process for disclosing patient-safety events to patients and families. Speak to the patient through that process, with the facility, rather than improvising.
6. Check the panel for conflicts. A member who is related to a party, works under a party's supervision, treated the patient for the same condition or was consulted by you on the case may not sit (Cabinet Resolution No. 40 of 2019, Article 12).
7. Draft your account with advice. Facts first, then clinical reasoning with the standards you relied on, then what you have changed. Ask your lawyer or insurer to review it before it goes in.

A DOH good standing certificate can be requested once you have held an active DOH licence for at least three months, and any past or current suspension, revocation, investigation or warning is stated on it. Because the national qualification requirements expect a certificate no older than six months when you apply for a licence elsewhere, a DOH decision is visible when you apply in Dubai, Sharjah or the other Northern Emirates.

DOH has not published any scheme for approving external remediation courses. Where a decision attaches conditions, follow them exactly. For nurses, midwives and allied health professionals, the federal Executive Regulations (Cabinet Resolution No. 176 of 2025, Article 11) allow conditions on reissuing a revoked licence that include mandatory training addressing the causes of revocation, competence reassessment, a restricted scope of practice or supervised practice for a set period; physicians can face comparable re-evaluation or restriction after a suspension of three to twelve months (Cabinet Resolution No. 67 of 2020, Article 7.2).

Where nothing has been ordered, focused learning can support your case and your return to practice. Our courses are independent: they are not accredited by DOH, no CME/CPD credits are attached to them, and they do not replace any training DOH requires unless it accepts them. Choose the course that matches the concern, keep the certificate with a written reflection, and record what you changed in your practice.