Monday - Friday / 09:00 - 18:00
Health law is a multidisciplinary branch of law that regulates activities in medicine, pharmacy, dentistry and other healthcare fields, and resolves disputes arising during these activities.
It mainly covers the following elements:
Patient and Physician Relationship: The legal nature of the treatment process and the mutual rights and obligations of the parties.
Medical Liability / Malpractice: Compensation and criminal proceedings arising from faulty medical interventions.
Management of Healthcare Institutions: Legal obligations, licensing and inspection processes of private and public hospitals.
Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Legislation: Production and distribution of medicines, clinical trials and the legal status of medical devices.
Health law is not only a field referred to when a dispute arises, but also one of the most important safeguards that enables the healthcare system to function safely. The main reasons why this field is critically important are as follows:
It Protects Patient Rights and the Right to Life: Pursuant to Article 17 of the Constitution, everyone has the right to life and the right to protect and improve their material and moral existence. Health law provides legal protection for patients’ access to proper treatment, their right to self-determination through informed consent during the treatment process, and the privacy of their personal health data under the Personal Data Protection Law.
Freedom to Seek Rights in Medical Errors / Malpractice: No medical intervention is entirely risk-free. However, in cases where harm arises from the fault of a physician or healthcare institution, such as diagnostic errors, incorrect surgery or lack of hygiene, health law comes into play. It sets out the legal roadmap for compensation claims so that injured patients and their families can recover material and moral damages.
It Protects Healthcare Professionals and Physicians: Health law protects not only patients, but also physicians and healthcare personnel. It clearly distinguishes between unavoidable risks inherent in medicine, known as complications, and physician errors.
Malpractice Lawsuits: These cover material and moral compensation processes arising from faulty or non-standard practices by physicians and healthcare personnel.
Patient and Physician Rights: This area includes fundamental dynamics such as informing the patient, obtaining consent, privacy, the legality of medical interventions and physicians’ freedom of treatment.
Personal Health Data: The security and confidentiality of records kept by healthcare institutions are regulated within this scope.
Criminal and Administrative Law Dimension: Criminal liabilities arising from medical malpractice and administrative lawsuits encountered in public hospitals, including full remedy actions, fall within this field.
Material and Moral Compensation Lawsuits: These are filed to obtain monetary compensation for material damages in cases of disability, additional treatment expenses or death caused by medical error, and for moral damages arising from psychological distress.
Lawsuits Filed before Administrative Courts: These are compensation lawsuits filed before administrative courts for medical errors occurring in state hospitals, university hospitals or training and research hospitals. In these cases, the defendant is not the physician directly, but the Ministry of Health or the relevant university rectorate on the grounds of service fault.
Compensation Lawsuits Filed before Civil Courts: These are lawsuits filed before civil courts against faulty medical practices of private hospitals, medical centers or physicians with private practices. Since the relationship between the patient and the private healthcare institution is considered a consumer transaction, Consumer Courts are competent, while Civil Courts of First Instance may be competent in tort-based cases. Before filing a compensation lawsuit in civil jurisdiction, it is legally mandatory to apply for mediation.
Criminal Cases against Physicians: If a medical malpractice act constitutes a criminal offense under the Turkish Penal Code, public criminal cases may be filed before criminal courts following an investigation by the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office. If the patient’s health is permanently or temporarily impaired as a result of faulty treatment, the offense of negligent injury may arise. If death occurs, the offense of negligent homicide may be alleged. For physicians working in public hospitals, obtaining investigation permission from the legally authorized institution is a critical requirement before a criminal case can be filed.
Health law is a complex field where medical and legal regulations are intertwined and which requires a high level of technical expertise. A health law attorney protects the rights of patients who have suffered loss of rights in medical processes, while also managing the legal processes of physicians and healthcare institutions facing legal risks. The main legal and consultancy services we provide in this field are as follows:
We conduct the legal processes of patients and their relatives who have suffered harm, disability or loss of life due to medical malpractice. We meticulously follow material and moral compensation lawsuits and mediation processes against private hospitals before Consumer Courts, and full remedy actions against state hospitals before Administrative Courts. We provide comprehensive support to our clients in the examination of patient files, collection of evidence and legal objections to reports issued by the Council of Forensic Medicine.
We provide defense services for physicians against whom criminal investigations have been initiated due to allegations of negligent injury or negligent homicide arising from medical interventions. We follow the investigation permission processes required for physicians who are public officials and develop legal strategies to protect the professional reputation of physicians against unjust malpractice allegations. We also provide defense services before civil and administrative courts against compensation claims faced by physicians personally or under compulsory professional liability insurance.
We provide preventive legal services for private hospitals, medical centers, polyclinics and aesthetic clinics to operate in full compliance with applicable legislation. We manage compliance processes with the regulations of the Ministry of Health and the Turkish Medicines and Medical Devices Agency, as well as the preparation and updating of legally compliant informed consent forms, which are of vital importance in patient-physician relationships. We provide corporate support in the annulment of administrative fines that healthcare institutions may face, licensing disputes and White Code processes under legislation concerning violence in healthcare.
Test results, diagnoses, imaging records and epicrisis reports belonging to patients and kept by healthcare institutions are classified as special categories of personal data under the Personal Data Protection Law. Our office provides specialized data protection consultancy to ensure that the data security infrastructure of hospitals and private practices complies with legal requirements, to prepare patient data disclosure texts and to prevent severe administrative fines that may arise from data breaches.
The healthcare sector and health tourism are among the fields subject to the strictest legal supervision. Our office provides the following corporate consultancy services in order to minimize the legal risks of private hospitals, medical centers, aesthetic clinics and intermediary agencies:
We manage compliance processes with the regulations of the Ministry of Health and the Turkish Medicines and Medical Devices Agency. We follow the opening and licensing procedures of clinics, prepare personnel contracts and, most importantly, determine the boundaries of corporate marketing in accordance with advertising restrictions in the healthcare sector in order to prevent administrative penalties.
We ensure the compliance of intermediary institutions with the regulations of the Ministry of Trade and the Ministry of Health. We establish the legal infrastructure for incentive processes and prepare package tour agreements to be signed with foreign patients, as well as commission agreements between the agency and hospitals or clinics, in a manner that prevents commercial risks.
In malpractice lawsuits, informed consent forms are among the most important pieces of evidence protecting healthcare institutions. We prepare branch-specific informed consent and approval texts for your clinic, such as aesthetics, dentistry or hair transplantation, in different languages including English, German and Arabic, which are not generic templates and have full legal validity.
In disputes with local or foreign patients, we primarily conduct settlement and mediation processes in order to protect your corporate reputation. If no settlement is reached, we defend your institution against unjust compensation claims before Consumer Courts and follow White Code processes in cases of violence in healthcare.
Monday - Friday / 09:00 - 18:00
