UAE medical liability law: what every licensed clinician needs to know

Medical liability in the UAE is federal. Federal Decree-Law No. 4 of 2016 Concerning Medical Liability came into force on 15 August 2016, replacing Federal Law No. 10 of 2008, and applies to any person who practises the profession in the State (Art. 2): a physician in a Dubai free-zone clinic and a dentist in Al Ain answer to the same rules. The text is written around the physician, but Article 37 gives other health professionals the same liabilities "to the extent possible", so nurses, midwives, pharmacists and allied health professionals are inside this system too.

The English texts are official translations and the Arabic prevails, so have any figure that matters to your case checked against the Arabic. Article numbers can differ between official English versions; this page follows uaelegislation.gov.ae.

Most guides to this law date from 2016 to 2019. Since then:

• Federal Decree-Law No. 18 of 2023. The DHA sent it to every Dubai licensee by circular CIR-2023-00000180 on 11 October 2023. In the Ministry of Justice consolidated text, Article 14 now permits assisted reproduction only in line with the legislation in force, and Article 16 on abortion has been rewritten. We found no change to the duties, committee, grievance, insurance or penalty articles.
• Cabinet Resolution No. 44 of 2024 added permitted abortion cases, such as pregnancy resulting from non-consensual intercourse, each subject to its own conditions and approvals.
• The disciplinary layer changed more. Dubai's Executive Council Resolution No. 49 of 2024 replaced the 2012 resolution; Federal Law No. 6 of 2023 and Cabinet Resolution No. 176 of 2025 now govern nurses, midwives and allied health professions; Sharjah issued Executive Council Resolution No. 29 of 2025, amended in May 2026 to add administrative penalties.

Some commentary suggests Supreme Committee decisions can now be challenged in court. The Decree-Law still calls them "final and unchallengeable by any means" and we have found no official source settling the point, so ask a UAE lawyer whether a court route is open in your case.

Article 3 sets the baseline: perform your duties with the accuracy and honesty the profession requires, in line with recognised scientific and technical standards, without discrimination and without exploiting the patient. Article 4 then lists ten duties of the physician:

1. Follow the rules, systems and procedures that apply to your grade and specialty.
2. Record the patient's condition and medical history before diagnosis and treatment.
3. Use the diagnostic and treatment methods the condition requires, as far as they are available.
4. Use medical tools and devices "with due care and attention and in accordance with the recognized scientific standards".
5. Keep the patient aware of the treatment options available.
6. Prescribe in writing, with your name, signature and the date.
7. Tell the patient the nature and seriousness of the condition, unless that is contraindicated, and tell the family where the patient lacks capacity or cannot be told personally.
8. Tell the patient or family about complications that may result from diagnosis, treatment or surgery before you intervene.
9. Cooperate with other physicians treating the patient and share information on the patient's condition.
10. Report suspected communicable diseases.

The Executive Regulations (Cabinet Resolution No. 40 of 2019, Art. 2) add duties that often decide a case: "utmost care" in providing and following up the service; no exploiting a patient's need for unlawful benefit; no discrimination; explaining all complications "in a clear and simplified manner"; and documenting each action in the medical file with its type, date and time.

Article 5 lists acts that are prohibited whatever the outcome for the patient. Some are also criminal offences under Chapter V of the Decree-Law.

1. Treating a patient without consent, except in an emergency, for an infectious disease that threatens public health, or where consent cannot be obtained (with special rules for patients who lack capacity).
2. Refusing to treat an emergency case, or abandoning treatment, unless the patient breaches instructions or the reason is beyond your control.
3. Refusing a case outside your specialty without first giving the necessary first aid and referring the patient to a specialist.
4. Using unauthorised or illegal treatment methods.
5. Prescribing before a clinical examination, except for remote services provided under the Executive Regulations.
6. Disclosing patient secrets, outside the listed exceptions (for example, the patient's own request, preventing or reporting a crime, acting as a court-appointed expert, or a health authority request to protect public health).
7. Examining a patient of the opposite sex without a third party present and without the patient's prior consent.
8. Accommodating patients outside the places designated for them, except in emergencies.
9. Performing sex-change surgery (correction for ambiguous sex is allowed under the conditions in Article 7).
10. Performing unnecessary procedures, or surgery without informed consent.

Consent, discharge and end of life

Outside an emergency, surgery needs a qualified surgeon, tests showing it is necessary, a suitable facility and written consent: from the patient if competent and 18 or over, otherwise from the spouse or a relative up to the fourth degree (Art. 8). The explanation must cover "the nature of the surgery, the success ratio, and the potential complications", and the same rules apply to chemotherapy, radiotherapy and other treatments the Minister designates (Cabinet Resolution No. 40 of 2019, Art. 3).

Discharge is allowed when the condition permits, on safe transfer, or at a competent patient's request against advice with a written acknowledgement (Art. 9). Life may not be ended for any reason, even on request (Art. 10). Resuscitation may be withheld only where the condition is irremediable, treatment has failed and at least three consultants agree it is in the patient's interest, and never if the patient expressly asks for it (Art. 11).

Article 6 defines a medical error as an error a practitioner commits for any one of four reasons:

• ignorance of technical matters that any practitioner of the same grade and specialty is expected to know;
• not following recognised professional and medical standards;
• not exercising the necessary due diligence;
• negligence, and not acting carefully and with precaution.

The benchmark is a practitioner of your own grade and specialty, not the most senior specialist in the country.

When an error is "gross"

Under Cabinet Resolution No. 40 of 2019 (Art. 5), an error is a gross medical error when it causes death, fetal death, the mistaken removal of an organ, loss of an organ's function or other serious damage, and at least one of these is present:

1. "Unpardonable unfamiliarity with the well-established medical standards" for the practitioner's level and specialty.
2. Using a medically unrecognised method.
3. Unjustified deviation from medical standards and rules.
4. Practising under the influence of alcohol, drugs or psychotropic substances.
5. Gross negligence or a clear lack of perception, such as leaving instruments in the body, an overdose, failure to operate devices or a resuscitation error.
6. Deliberately practising beyond your specialty or clinical privileges.
7. Using diagnostic or therapeutic means without prior practice or training and without medical supervision.

The committee must say which criterion it relied on, and classifying an error as gross needs the votes of two-thirds of the members present (Cabinet Resolution No. 40 of 2019, Art. 11), not a simple majority.

When there is no liability

Article 17 rules out liability where the damage did not result from an Article 6 cause; where the patient caused it (for example by refusing treatment) or it had an external cause; where you used a different method that still conforms to accepted medical standards; or where a recognised or unexpected complication occurred without a medical error.

Medical Liability Committees are formed by the Minister or the head of each health authority from experienced doctors across specialties (Art. 18; Cabinet Resolution No. 40 of 2019, Art. 9); MOHAP, the DHA and the DOH each run their own. Technical sub-committees may advise but do not vote.

• Exclusive jurisdiction. The committee decides complaints referred by the health authority, the Public Prosecution or a court: whether an error occurred, its gravity, each contributor's share, cause, damage, causal link and any disability percentage.
• Gatekeeper rule. A compensation claim arising from medical liability "shall not be accepted" unless first referred to the committee (Art. 18); courts and the Prosecution pass such cases to the health authority.
• Timing. A reasoned report within 30 days of referral, extendable with the health authority's approval (Art. 19). In practice longer: the DHA quotes one to six months, and the DOH says an investigation "might take months".
• Hearing. The Rapporteur requests the original medical file and calls the parties and witnesses (Cabinet Resolution No. 40 of 2019, Art. 10).
• Quorum. Two-thirds of members including the chair or deputy; majority vote, chair's casting vote (Art. 11).
• Conflicts of interest. A member may not sit if related to a party up to the fourth degree, working under a party's supervision, the patient's previous doctor for the same condition or consulted by the professional on the case (Art. 12). If this applies, say so in writing.
• Notification. In person, by post, fax or e-mail (Art. 15); the date you are notified starts the grievance clock.

What happens before and after the committee depends on the authority. The guide to complaints and investigations in the UAE compares the routes, and the authority pages for MOHAP, the DHA and the DOH set out each one in detail.

The patient (or complainant) and the professional complained against can both challenge a Medical Liability Committee report by grievance within 30 days of legal notification (Art. 20). The health authority sends the grievance and the file to the Supreme Committee of Medical Liability. If nobody files in time, the report becomes final and cannot be challenged before any other body.

• Who sits on it. Medical consultants nominated by the Minister for renewable three-year terms, under Cabinet Resolution No. 14 of 2020, with its office at MOHAP.
• What it can do. Uphold, amend or cancel the report, within 30 days of referral (extendable). Its decision is "final and unchallengeable by any means".
• One body, two names. The legislation says "Supreme Committee"; DOH and MOHAP pages say "Higher Medical Liability Committee".
• Filing in Abu Dhabi. The DOH's online "Appeal request for medical error complaint" service takes grievances from complainants and healthcare providers within 30 days of receiving the report, for AED 5,000, with no fixed time frame for the outcome.

A grievance against a disciplinary penalty is a separate procedure with its own deadline of 15, 30 or 60 days depending on the law that applies; the deadlines table lists them.

The Decree-Law protects patients while a case is open, and the clinician from premature criminal action.

• Temporary suspension (Art. 23). The health authority may suspend a licence while a medical-error report is pending, or while other violations are investigated, for up to 30 days, renewable. It is a protective measure, not a finding.
• The authority is told first (Art. 22; Cabinet Resolution No. 40 of 2019, Art. 16). Any body investigating a practitioner must first notify the licensing authority by official letter; the authority may attend and submit documents, and receives the findings.
• No arrest without a gross-error report (Art. 24). A complaint to the Public Prosecution is referred to the health authority, and no investigation, arrest or temporary detention of a practitioner may take place unless the authority has issued a final report confirming a gross medical error.

Emirate rules add their own interim powers. Dubai allows precautionary suspension of up to three months, extendable once, under Executive Council Resolution No. 49 of 2024; these measures are compared in the section on interim suspension of our complaints guide.

Most medical-error cases end with a committee report and, where damage is proven, a civil claim for compensation. A medical error becomes a crime only when it is a gross medical error (Art. 34):

Chapter V also creates offences that do not depend on any error, because the act itself is prohibited:

Penalties in other laws do not apply to acts this Decree-Law penalises (Art. 36), and criminal liability does not affect disciplinary liability (Art. 38). In Dubai, a court acquittal does not prevent DHA administrative penalties (Executive Council Resolution No. 49 of 2024, Art. 24).

For the gross-error offences in Article 34, the Decree-Law offers a way to end the criminal case (Art. 35 in the uaelegislation.gov.ae numbering). The request comes from the injured side: the victim, their attorney, their heirs or the heirs' attorney. It is made before the health authority, which refers it to the Public Prosecution, or directly before the Prosecution.

• It can be made at any stage of the case, even after a final judgment.
• It ends the criminal case; if it is reached while a sentence is being carried out, the Prosecution suspends the penalty.
• It does not affect the victim's right to claim compensation in the civil courts.
• It is not available if the same Article 34 acts are repeated.

Compensation and any disciplinary action remain open, so handle reconciliation through your lawyer and insurer, never by approaching the family yourself.

Nobody may practise a health profession in the UAE without insurance against civil liability for medical errors, issued by an insurer licensed in the State (Art. 25).

• Who pays. The facility owner must insure its practitioners against civil liability for medical errors and against professional risks, and pays all premiums (Art. 26).
• When. The facility must arrange the cover before you take up your post and renew it when it expires (Cabinet Resolution No. 40 of 2019, Art. 17).
• The insurer's position. Insurers are subrogated to the rights and obligations of the facility and the insured (Art. 27), one reason to involve the insurer from the start of any complaint.
• Visiting doctors. For a visiting doctor, the receiving health authority assumes the indemnity towards the injured party, with recourse against the practitioner (Art. 25).
• At renewal. MOHAP licence renewal asks for valid "Insurance Against Medical Faults", and DHCR renewal requires valid medical malpractice insurance.

A committee report is not the last word on your licence. Article 38 keeps disciplinary liability alongside any criminal case, and Cabinet Resolution No. 40 of 2019 (Art. 18) points to the law under which each group is disciplined:

Emirate rules sit on top of these. In Dubai, the DHA refers Medical Liability Committee decisions, together with the patient's complaint, to the Medical Practices Committee (Executive Council Resolution No. 49 of 2024, Art. 4), which can impose penalties from a written warning to revocation and can require training courses, supervised practice for up to one year and reassessment (Art. 19). The penalty scales for each authority are compared in the penalties table of our complaints guide.

Cases that reach a committee tend to turn on a few questions. Was the patient properly informed? Was it written down? Was the clinician working within their competence and privileges? Did the team escalate in time? Habits that answer those questions:

• Consent as a recorded conversation. For surgery and the treatments the Minister designates, written consent after explaining the nature of the procedure, the success ratio and the potential complications; for everything else, a note of what was discussed.
• Contemporaneous notes. Each action with its type, date and time; later additions labelled as late entries, never backdated. In Dubai, changing or deleting medical-file data against DHA instructions is itself a violation (Executive Council Resolution No. 49 of 2024, Schedule 4, item 34).
• Stay inside your privileges. Deliberately practising beyond them is one of the gross-error criteria.
• Telehealth. Remote prescribing only by a UAE-licensed doctor after an electronic examination, documented, through a facility licensed for it (Cabinet Resolution No. 40 of 2019, Art. 7 and annex).

Training is not a penalty in the Decree-Law itself. It comes through the disciplinary rules, decided case by case: Dubai's Medical Practices Committee can require training courses, up to a year of supervised practice and reassessment (Executive Council Resolution No. 49 of 2024, Art. 19(c)); and after a doctor's suspension of three to twelve months, the authority may re-evaluate competence or restrict privileges (Cabinet Resolution No. 67 of 2020, Art. 7.2). No authority publishes a list of approved external courses for these cases.

Our Medical Liability and Medical Errors Course teaches this law and the committee process from the clinician's side, with UAE scenarios; if a complaint is already open, the 4-hour core course for professionals facing a complaint or investigation covers both tracks with insight and remediation evidence.