How long do you have to complain or claim after a medical error?

How long do you have to make a medical complaint?

Three years in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and at Emirates Health Services hospitals. Each authority counts from a slightly different point.

• Dubai Health Authority (DHA). “A medical complaint exceeding 3 years from the date of the event cannot be filed.”¹
• Department of Health Abu Dhabi (DoH). Within three years from the date the medical error happened or was discovered.²
• Emirates Health Services (EHS). No later than 3 years after the incident.³

The Ministry of Health and Prevention (MOHAP) complaint page does not state a time limit.⁴ Nor does the Sharjah Health Authority (SHA) complaint page.⁵ Ask the authority before you rely on any date.

Use the deadline calculator to work out your dates, and the complaint finder to see which authority covers your facility.

How long do you have to appeal a committee report?

Thirty days. The Medical Liability Law lets you or the doctor file a grievance with the health authority within 30 days of being legally notified of the report. If nobody files one, the report becomes final and cannot be challenged before any authority.⁶

• DoH says to appeal within 30 days of receiving the report, and charges AED 5,000.⁷
• EHS says within 30 days of the legal notification, and charges AED 5,000.⁸
• SHA says within 30 days of receiving the committee’s decision.⁵

Write down the date you received the report. The appeal page explains the process.

How long do you have to start a court claim for compensation?

Three years from the day you became aware of the harm and of the person responsible. In all cases, no claim is heard more than 15 years after the harmful act.⁹ These limits are in Article 258 of the Civil Transactions Law that took effect on 1 June 2026.⁹ The 1985 law it replaced had the same 3-year and 15-year limits in Article 298.¹⁰

A court will not accept a compensation claim for medical liability until the complaint has been referred to a Medical Liability Committee.⁶

Write down the day you first knew of the harm and who was responsible. The compensation page covers what you can claim.

Does a criminal case change your deadline?

Yes. If your claim arises from a crime and the criminal case can still proceed after the three years, the three years start only when the criminal case ends.⁹

Keep the date of the final criminal judgment. The criminal complaint page explains how a criminal case runs.

What are the limits if your complaint is about your health insurer?

A complaint about an insurer follows a separate route with its own limits. In Dubai, the Dubai Health Insurance Corporation will not accept a complaint if more than one calendar year has passed since the dispute first arose, or if the matter is before a court.¹¹

Sanadak, which takes complaints against licensed financial institutions and insurers, asks that you complained to the insurer first and that 15 calendar days have passed with no written reply, or with a reply you are not satisfied with.¹² You can submit up to three years from the conduct, or two years from when you became aware of it, whichever is longer.¹²

The insurance route is explained on the health insurance complaints guide.

Where can you see every deadline at once?

Table 1 collects the limits above.^{1,2,3,6,9,11,12}

Put each date in your calendar the day you learn it.

The small print

• Committee timing. Article 19 of Federal Decree-Law No. 4 of 2016 gives a committee thirty days from referral to report, extendable with the health authority’s approval. Article 20 sets the 30-day grievance period.⁶
• Change of civil law. Article 6 of the 2025 Civil Transactions Law says new time-limit rules apply from 1 June 2026 to every period not yet completed, and that former rules govern the start, suspension and interruption of a period before that date.⁹