This guide explains, from the Canadian side, how to secure the medical file from the Turkish clinic, which Turkish rules govern a claim against the clinic, the doctor, the insurer and the agency, which time limits to treat as the working deadline, and how much of the claim can be run from Canada.
Every year, people living in Canada travel to Türkiye for hair transplants, dental implants and veneers, bariatric surgery, cosmetic procedures and eye surgery. Some come home with an infection, a failed implant, scarring, a revision that a Canadian surgeon says is needed, or a result that bears little relation to what was promised in the messages exchanged before the trip.
At that point the patient is in Toronto, Calgary or Montreal, the clinic is in Istanbul or Antalya, and the agency that arranged the trip may be somewhere else again. This guide explains what a patient in that position can do: what to secure in Canada, how to obtain the medical file from the Turkish clinic, which Turkish rules govern the claim, which time limits to treat as the deadline, which insurance stands behind the clinic and the doctor, and how much of a claim can be run without returning to Türkiye. It is legal information, not medical advice, and it does not assess any clinic.
Your first weeks back in Canada: what to secure
The evidence that decides a Turkish claim is built in the weeks after the return, and much of it is created in Canada.
Follow-up treatment records. If you see a family doctor, a walk-in clinic, a dentist or a surgeon in Canada, ask for copies of the consultation notes, imaging, test results, prescriptions and any operative report for corrective treatment. A dated report that describes the condition you presented with is often the most useful single document, because it can be set against the Turkish record. The Government of Canada’s page on travelling outside Canada to receive medical care makes the same practical point from the health side: it advises getting copies of all records of the procedure before leaving, including X-rays and scans, and telling any provider you consult for at least twelve months after your return that you were treated outside Canada.
Your own photographs. Unedited originals, dated, taken regularly from the same angle and in similar light. Keep the files with their original metadata rather than screenshots or filtered versions.
Messages and promotional material. WhatsApp, Instagram and e-mail exchanges with the clinic and with any agency or coordinator: the quote, the treatment plan, what you were told about who would perform the procedure, the aftercare instructions, and the replies when you reported the problem. Export whole conversations, not selected screenshots.
Payments. Card statements, transfer confirmations and invoices, showing who was actually paid. Money paid to an agency rather than to the clinic matters when deciding whom to claim against.
Costs in Canada. Receipts for follow-up treatment, medication, travel to appointments and time off work. Treatment expenses, loss of earnings and loss of working capacity are heads of bodily damage under Article 54 of the Turkish Code of Obligations (Law No. 6098), and Article 56 allows the court to award non-pecuniary damages for harm to bodily integrity. The site’s guide to medical malpractice compensation explains how those heads are quantified.
Health insurance in Canada is organised by each province and territory, and each has its own plan (Health Canada). The federal travel page warns that a provincial or territorial plan may not cover expenses if complications develop in the country where the procedure took place. Ask your own plan what it covers and keep its written answers: if it refuses to pay for corrective treatment, that cost is part of your loss.
Getting your medical file from the Turkish clinic
You do not need the clinic’s goodwill to obtain your records. Several separate rules give you that right.
The Patient Rights Regulation. Article 16 of the Patient Rights Regulation (Hasta Hakları Yönetmeliği, Official Gazette of 1 August 1998) provides that the patient may examine the file and records containing information about their health, directly or through a representative (vekil) or legal representative, and obtain a copy. Article 4 defines a health institution as every public or private institution in which health services are provided, so private clinics are covered. Article 17 adds the right to ask for incomplete, unclear or incorrect records to be completed or corrected, and to object to reports about your health. Two documents should already be in your hands: under Article 26, for interventions where the legislation requires a consent form or a dispute is medically foreseeable, the form is signed in two copies, one for the file and one given to the patient, and under Article 24 an inpatient whose treatment is completed receives a copy of the discharge summary (epikriz).
The data protection law. Health data is special category personal data under Article 6(1) of Law No. 6698 on the Protection of Personal Data. Article 11(1) gives everyone the right to apply to the data controller to learn whether their data has been processed and, if so, to request information about it. Under Article 13 the request is made in writing (or by another method the Board determines), and the controller must conclude it free of charge within thirty days at the latest; a fee under the Board’s tariff may be charged only where the process involves an additional cost. If the request is refused, answered inadequately or not answered in time, a complaint may be made to the Personal Data Protection Board within thirty days of learning the answer and in any event within sixty days of the request (Article 14(1)).
Health tourism documents. Where you were treated as an international patient, Article 12(1) of the International Health Tourism and Tourist Health Regulation (Official Gazette of 26 April 2025) requires the facility to issue an invoice or sales slip with an itemised breakdown and unit prices, and to provide free of charge on request the list of drugs and consumables charged to you, the laboratory results and radiological images you paid for (originals are not handed over in forensic cases), and prescriptions for items bought outside. An intermediary must provide, on request and free of charge, an itemised breakdown of its accommodation, transport, transfer, interpreting and consultancy charges.
In practice, a written request in Turkish, sent by e-mail and by a traceable channel, naming each category of record and citing these provisions, works better than a general request for “my file”. If the clinic stalls, the request can be made by a lawyer in Türkiye acting under your power of attorney.
Which Turkish rules govern the claim
Which law applies is decided by the Turkish conflict-of-laws statute (Law No. 5718). Absent a choice, a contract made in the course of a commercial or professional activity is governed by the law of the place of business of the party performing the characteristic obligation, unless the circumstances as a whole show a closer connection with another law (Article 24(4)); for treatment by a Turkish clinic this points to Turkish law. The special rule for consumer contracts, which can lead to the law of the consumer’s habitual residence, does not apply, package tours aside, to contracts under which the service must be provided in a country other than that of the consumer’s habitual residence (Article 26(4)). In tort the starting point is the law of the country where the act was committed; where the act and the damage are in different countries, the law of the place of damage applies, and a more closely connected law prevails (Article 34(1)-(3)). This guide proceeds on Turkish law; the site’s guide to medical tourism in Türkiye discusses where that analysis becomes harder.
Contract. The Code of Obligations has no separate chapter on medical treatment. Article 502(2) applies the mandate provisions, so far as they fit, to work-performance contracts the Code does not regulate separately, and under Article 506 a mandatary must perform loyally and with care, measured against the conduct expected of a prudent mandatary undertaking similar work. Article 112 then places the burden on the provider: where an obligation is not performed or not performed properly, the debtor must make good the loss unless it proves that no fault is attributable to it. Article 114(2) applies the tort rules on compensation by analogy, and under Article 116(1) the clinic answers for damage caused by its auxiliaries, such as staff who carried out parts of the procedure. Where a service, profession or trade requiring professional skill may only be carried on with a permission given by law or by the competent authorities, an agreement that the debtor is not liable for its auxiliaries is absolutely void (Article 116(3)). For some purely aesthetic procedures it is argued that the contract is a works contract (eser sözleşmesi, Article 470), with different remedies and periods; the guides on hair transplant complications and cosmetic and bariatric surgery claims discuss that choice.
Tort. Under Article 49(1), a person who causes damage to another by a wrongful and culpable act must compensate it. Here the burden is reversed: under Article 50(1) the injured person must prove the damage and the fault, although the judge fixes the amount equitably where it cannot be proved exactly (Article 50(2)). Article 66 makes an employer liable for damage caused by an employee in the course of the work, unless it proves it took the care required. Where liability can rest on more than one basis, Article 60 directs the judge to decide on the basis that offers the injured person the most favourable compensation, unless the injured person asks otherwise or the law provides otherwise.
The consumer layer. Law No. 6502 on Consumer Protection defines a consumer as a natural or legal person acting for non-commercial or non-professional purposes (Article 3(1)(k)), and a consumer transaction as every contract and legal transaction between consumers and persons acting for commercial or professional purposes, expressly including works and mandate contracts (Article 3(1)(l)). The definitions say nothing about nationality or residence. Whether a given patient and a given clinic fall within them is assessed on the facts.
The intermediary. Many Canadians book through an agency or coordinator. The 2025 Regulation defines an intermediary organisation as one operated by an authorised legal entity that advises international patients and arranges the health facility, accommodation, transport and transfers (Article 4(1)(a)), and Article 5(1) requires an authorisation certificate for intermediaries and facilities alike. Article 6(3) provides that the facility and the intermediary are responsible, according to the type of service each supplied, for the services the patient receives while in Türkiye, and that medical malpractice that may arise after the service falls within that responsibility. The consolidated text currently marks the words “complication and” in that sentence as suspended by a stay-of-execution order; the malpractice limb is unaffected. The site’s analysis of the legal position of health tourism intermediaries covers this in more depth.
Time limits: treat the shortest as your deadline
The Turkish rules contain several periods, and the law does not pick one in advance for treatment claims. The safe approach is to identify every period that could apply and work to the shortest.
Tort. Under Article 72(1) of the Code of Obligations, a claim for compensation is time-barred two years from the date the injured person learned of the damage and the person liable, and in any event ten years from the date of the act. If the compensation arises from an act for which the criminal law provides a longer limitation period, that longer period applies. The two years start from knowledge of both elements, not from the date of surgery, but a patient who has already seen a Canadian doctor about the complication and knows which clinic treated them should assume the clock is running.
Contract. Article 146 sets ten years unless the law provides otherwise, and Article 147 provides otherwise for several categories. Item 5 subjects to five years claims arising from mandate, commission and agency contracts; item 6 does the same for claims arising from a works contract, except where the contractor failed to perform at all or properly through gross fault. On the works analysis, Article 478 adds that actions for a defective work are time-barred two years from delivery for works other than immovable structures, and twenty years where the contractor is at gross fault. Whether item 5 reaches a patient’s claim for damages under a treatment contract, or the general ten-year period applies, is an open question that the wording of the Code does not settle, so a patient should not rely on the longer period. Article 148 provides that these periods cannot be changed by contract.
Consumer law. Where the claim is framed as one for a defective service, Article 16(1) of Law No. 6502 subjects liability to two years from performance of the service, even if the defect appears later, unless a longer period is set by law or contract; under Article 16(2) the limitation rules do not apply where the defect was concealed by gross fault or fraud.
What stops the clock. Under Article 154, limitation is interrupted if the debtor acknowledges the debt (for example by part payment) or if the claimant applies to a court or arbitrator, starts enforcement or files with a bankruptcy estate. Correspondence and negotiation with the clinic are not on that list. A statutory mediation application does stop limitation from the application until the final minutes (Law No. 6325, Article 18/A(15)).
Practically, then: take two years from the date you learned of the damage and the identity of the clinic as the working deadline, and do not let a promise of a free revision or a goodwill gesture run that period down.
The insurance behind the clinic and the doctor
Compulsory physician cover. Additional Article 12 of Law No. 1219 requires physicians and dentists working in private health institutions or practising independently to take out professional liability insurance covering damage they may cause to persons through medical malpractice and recourse claims against them. For those employed in a private institution, the compulsory policy is taken out by the institution. Under Article 1478(1) of the Turkish Commercial Code (Law No. 6102), an injured person may claim compensation directly from the liability insurer, up to the sum insured, within the limitation period applicable to the insurance contract.
The Insurance Arbitration Commission. Article 30 of the Insurance Law (Law No. 5684) sets up the Insurance Arbitration Commission (Sigorta Tahkim Komisyonu) for disputes arising from insurance contracts, and for insurances made compulsory by legislation the rights-holders may use it even if the insurer is not a member (Article 30(1)). Before applying, the person must have applied to the insurer and documented a full or partial rejection, or received no written reply within fifteen working days (Article 30(13)); a dispute already before a court or a consumer arbitration committee cannot be taken there (Article 30(14)); and the arbitrators must decide within four months of appointment, failing which the competent court resolves the dispute (Article 30(16)).
Complication insurance in health tourism. Article 6(1)(c) of the 2025 Regulation requires the health facility to take out complication insurance for surgical and interventional procedures performed in an operating theatre within international health tourism. The Regulation does not set the policy terms, so what it covers depends on the policy itself, and a copy is worth requesting early. Parts of the 2025 Regulation have been challenged before the administrative courts, and the consolidated text already marks a stay on words in Article 6(3), so the status of any provision relied on should be rechecked on the official text when the claim is made.
Where and how a claim is brought
The forum. International jurisdiction of the Turkish courts follows the domestic venue rules (Private International Law Act No. 5718, Article 40). Under the Code of Civil Procedure (Law No. 6100), the general venue is the defendant’s domicile when the action is filed (Article 6), a contract claim may also be brought where the contract is to be performed (Article 10), and a tort claim where the act was committed or the damage occurred (Article 16). As to the type of court, Article 73(1) of Law No. 6502 gives the consumer courts jurisdiction over disputes arising from consumer transactions; actions brought by consumers there are exempt from the fees under Fees Law No. 492 (Article 73(2)). Outside that track, the civil court of first instance is competent (Code of Civil Procedure, Article 2). Article 73(5) also allows a consumer to sue in the consumer court of their own domicile, a limb of little use to someone domiciled in Canada.
Mediation and the arbitration committee. For disputes heard in the consumer courts, applying to a mediator before suing is a procedural precondition (Law No. 6502, Article 73/A(1)). Disputes below the annually revalued limit in Article 68 go to the consumer arbitration committee instead, and the mediation precondition does not apply to them (Article 73/A(1)(a)). A money action against the liability insurer under Article 1478 of the Commercial Code is a commercial action, because it arises from a matter that Code regulates (Article 4(1)(a)), and Article 5/A(1) of that Code makes prior mediation a condition of such an action.
Evidence before and during the case. If evidence risks being lost, a party may ask the court to preserve it by an inspection, an assessor’s examination or witness statements before filing (Code of Civil Procedure, Article 400). During the case the court obtains the opinion of a bilirkişi, a court-appointed assessor, where the dispute turns on special or technical knowledge (Article 266(1)), and a party may file a scientific opinion obtained from a physician of its choice (Article 293(1)). The judge may call that physician to be heard; a report whose author fails to attend without valid excuse is not evaluated (Article 293(2)-(3)). This matters when the opinion comes from a surgeon in Canada.
Security for costs. Under Article 48 of Law No. 5718, foreign claimants must provide security fixed by the court for costs and the other side’s losses, and the court exempts them on the basis of reciprocity. Whether an exemption is available is checked before filing.
Criminal complaint. Negligent injury is an offence under Article 89 of the Turkish Criminal Code (Law No. 5237), punishable by four months to two years’ imprisonment or a judicial fine under Article 89(1), with increases for serious consequences. Investigation depends on a complaint, except where the offence is committed with conscious negligence outside the first paragraph (Article 89(5)), and the complaint must be made within six months of learning of the act and the perpetrator (Article 73(1)-(2)). For physicians and dentists in public or private institutions, permission to investigate medical acts is given by the Professional Liability Board within the Ministry of Health (Law No. 3359, Additional Article 18). Take care with withdrawal: if the prosecution ends because the complaint is withdrawn and, when withdrawing, the complainant also expressly declares that they waive their personal rights, a civil action can no longer be brought (Criminal Code, Article 73(7)).
Ministry channels. Under Article 5(1)(b) of the Regulation on the Inspection of Private Health Facilities (Official Gazette of 17 November 2023), an unannounced inspection may be carried out by the Ministry or the provincial health directorate upon a report or complaint, as a rule completed within thirty days of the inspector’s assignment. The Patient Rights Boards set up by provincial health directorates do hear complaints about private institutions (Patient Rights Regulation, Article 42/B), but they do not evaluate allegations of medical error (Article 42/C(ı)). Neither channel pays compensation.
Comparing the routes
| Route | What it can achieve | Time limit to watch | Typical evidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Written claim to the clinic or its liability insurer | Settlement or payment; a documented refusal opens the insurance arbitration route | The claim’s limitation keeps running; negotiation alone does not interrupt it (TBK 154) | Turkish file, Canadian reports, receipts, messages |
| Insurance Arbitration Commission | Arbitral decision against the insurer on a compulsory policy | Apply after rejection or 15 working days’ silence; decision within 4 months (Law 5684, Art. 30) | Insurer correspondence, policy details, medical evidence |
| Consumer route (committee or consumer court) | Committee decision below the yearly limit; court judgment above it, after mediation | 2 years from performance for defective service (Law 6502, Art. 16); TBK periods for damages | Contract, invoices, consent form, photographs |
| Civil claim for compensation | Judgment for treatment costs, lost earnings, loss of working capacity and non-pecuniary damages | 2 years from knowledge, 10 years from the act (TBK 72); in contract 5 or 10 years (TBK 147(5), 146; open question) | Court-appointed assessor’s report, Turkish and Canadian records |
| Criminal complaint | Investigation of the practitioner; no compensation by itself | 6 months from learning of the act and the perpetrator (TCK 73) | Medical file, photographs, identity of the practitioner |
| Complaint to the provincial health directorate | Unannounced inspection and administrative sanctions; no compensation | No filing period in the inspection regulation; inspection as a rule completed within 30 days of assignment | Description of facts, clinic details, promotional material |
Documents from Canada: notarisation, apostille and translation
A report signed by a physician in Canada is a private document. To use it in Türkiye, it is usually certified by a notary public in your province (for example a notarial certificate of a true copy or of the physician’s signature), and the notarial act is then apostilled. Under the 1961 Apostille Convention the apostille certifies the authenticity of the signature, the capacity of the signatory and the seal (Article 5); it does not vouch for the medical content. Canada has applied the Convention since 11 January 2024 and Türkiye since 1985. Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan issue their own apostilles; Global Affairs Canada issues them for federal documents and for documents issued or notarised in the other provinces and territories. A Turkish translation by a sworn translator is then needed for the Turkish court.
The same chain applies to the power of attorney you give a Turkish lawyer. Turkish citizens living in Canada can also sign it before a Turkish consulate, since notarial business abroad is carried out by consuls (Notary Law No. 1512, Article 191); Türkiye has an Embassy in Ottawa and Consulates General in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. The steps are set out in our guide to powers of attorney and apostilles from Canada. If you were thinking of suing in a Canadian court instead, note that a Canadian judgment would need a separate enforcement procedure in Türkiye; see enforcing a Canadian court judgment in Türkiye.
How Lex Lata works with patients in Canada
Lex Lata acts for patients living abroad in claims arising from treatment in Türkiye, within its health law practice. Work with clients in Canada is done remotely and in English: records are collected under the patient’s power of attorney, Canadian reports and receipts are organised for translation and filing, and the patient can be represented by counsel in mediation and at hearings. Whether the court-appointed assessor needs to examine the patient in person depends on the case. The Canada overview sets out the other matters covered for people living in Canada. To describe your situation, use the contact page.
