Medical Tourism Agencies in Turkey: Who Is Liable When Treatment Goes Wrong?
Medical tourism in Turkey often begins long before the patient enters a hospital.
A foreign patient may first see an advertisement on Instagram, Google, TikTok or another social-media platform.
The patient contacts a company using WhatsApp.
A coordinator sends photographs of a surgeon’s previous work.
The company recommends a hospital or clinic.
It provides a treatment quotation.
A package may include:
- surgery;
- hospital fees;
- hotel accommodation;
- airport transfers;
- interpretation;
- postoperative support.
The patient may never communicate directly with the surgeon until shortly before the operation.
If everything goes well, the distinction between the doctor, hospital and medical tourism agency may seem unimportant.
But when treatment goes wrong, it becomes one of the most important legal questions in the case.
A patient may suffer:
- permanent scarring;
- infection;
- nerve injury;
- breathing problems;
- failed dental implants;
- gastric leakage;
- severe asymmetry;
- organ injury;
- the need for revision surgery.
The patient then asks the agency:
“Who is responsible?”
The response is sometimes:
“We only organised the treatment. You must speak to the doctor.”
The doctor may respond:
“The package was sold by the agency. Speak to them.”
And the hospital may say:
“Your contract was with another company.”
Turkish law does not resolve this problem by automatically making every participant responsible for everything.
The correct approach is more precise.
Under Turkey’s current international health-tourism framework, the healthcare facility and the intermediary organisation are responsible according to the type of service they provide. The regulation separately defines an intermediary as an authorised legal entity providing consultancy, healthcare-facility organisation, accommodation, transportation and transfer services for international health tourists and their accompanying persons.
This means that liability should generally follow:
who undertook which obligation,
who committed which failure,
and
which failure caused the patient’s loss.
A surgeon’s negligent operative technique is fundamentally different from an agency’s misleading advertisement.
A hospital’s failure to treat postoperative bleeding is different from an intermediary’s failure to provide promised airport transportation.
But some medical tourism cases involve overlapping failures.
In those cases, the patient may potentially have claims against more than one defendant.
What Is a Medical Tourism Agency Under Turkish Law?
Turkey significantly revised its international health-tourism regulatory framework with the International Health Tourism and Tourist Health Regulation published on 26 April 2025.
The Regulation replaced the earlier 2017 framework.
It defines an aracı kuruluş — intermediary organisation as a healthcare-tourism intermediary operated by an authorised legal entity that performs activities including:
- consultancy for the international health tourist;
- organisation of the healthcare facility;
- accommodation;
- transportation;
- transfer services.
The Regulation applies to foreign patients travelling to Turkey for healthcare, as well as the healthcare facilities and intermediary organisations providing those services.
This definition matters.
A medical tourism intermediary is not necessarily the same thing as:
- the hospital;
- the surgeon;
- the dental clinic;
- the physician.
The company that communicates with the patient may be a legally separate business.
Therefore, a patient should identify the exact legal entities before starting a compensation claim.
Medical Tourism Agencies Must Be Authorised
Under the 2025 Regulation, both healthcare facilities and intermediary organisations must have an international health tourism authorisation certificate to operate within the regulated system.
The healthcare facility’s authorisation is issued through the Ministry framework.
The intermediary organisation’s authorisation is issued by USHAŞ — Uluslararası Sağlık Hizmetleri A.Ş.
Each separately operated intermediary or branch requires the necessary authorisation, and the authorisation certificate cannot simply be transferred to another business.
For a foreign patient, this creates a valuable due-diligence question before paying:
Is the company legally authorised to operate as an international health tourism intermediary?
A professional-looking Instagram account is not itself an authorisation certificate.
The Medical Tourism Agency Is Not Automatically the Healthcare Provider
The most important legal distinction is between:
medical services, and
intermediary services.
Diagnosis, surgical indication, medical treatment, anaesthesia and technical surgical performance are healthcare functions.
The intermediary’s ordinary role concerns matters such as:
- consultation and coordination;
- organising the healthcare provider;
- transportation;
- transfer;
- accommodation;
- interpretation;
- logistical support.
The regulatory framework itself distinguishes these categories.
Article 6 states that the healthcare facility and intermediary organisation are responsible according to the type of service provided.
Therefore, if a surgeon negligently damages a nerve during an operation, the medical tourism agency does not automatically become medically negligent merely because it booked the surgeon.
But that is not the end of the analysis.
The agency may have created its own responsibility through:
- promises;
- representations;
- contractual undertakings;
- negligent organisation;
- incorrect information;
- other acts causally connected with the patient’s loss.
When Is the Doctor Primarily Responsible?
The doctor or surgeon will generally be central where the allegation concerns a clinical decision or medical act.
Examples include:
- incorrect diagnosis;
- operating without appropriate indication;
- negligent surgical technique;
- wrong implant placement;
- excessive tissue removal;
- negligent anaesthesia decision;
- failure to recognise a complication;
- delayed revision surgery;
- inappropriate medication.
These are medical questions requiring specialist expert evidence.
An intermediary should not normally be transformed into a surgeon simply because it marketed the treatment.
When Is the Hospital Responsible?
The hospital or healthcare facility can have responsibilities separate from the doctor.
These may include:
- operating theatre organisation;
- nursing care;
- postoperative monitoring;
- emergency response;
- infection control;
- medical records;
- laboratory and radiology systems;
- staffing;
- intensive-care availability.
The 2025 International Health Tourism Regulation itself assigns healthcare delivery to the authorised healthcare facility and requires each participating facility to establish an international health-tourism unit coordinating matters including patient admission, registration, diagnosis, treatment, billing, discharge, interpretation and intermediary-related processes.
Therefore, treatment failure should not always be analysed only as:
“Did the doctor make a mistake?”
Hospital organisational negligence can be a separate issue.
When Can the Medical Tourism Agency Be Responsible?
An intermediary can potentially be liable where the failure relates to the services, promises or representations that the intermediary itself undertook.
Several examples are particularly important.
1. Misleading Information About the Doctor
Suppose the agency tells the patient:
“Your operation will be performed by Professor X.”
The patient travels to Turkey.
A different doctor performs the operation.
Or the agency states:
“This surgeon is a board-certified plastic surgeon with twenty years’ experience.”
That representation is false.
The problem is no longer simply the medical outcome.
The agency may have made a material representation that influenced the patient’s decision to purchase the service.
Under Turkish consumer law, a service can be defective where it does not possess characteristics communicated by the provider, including characteristics stated through advertising or online representations. The provider is required to perform the service in conformity with the contract.
Therefore, WhatsApp promises concerning the doctor’s identity or qualification can become significant evidence.
2. Misleading Information About the Hospital or Clinic
A similar problem arises if an agency represents that treatment will take place at:
“a fully authorised international hospital”
but the actual facility materially differs from what was represented.
Turkey’s 2025 Regulation requires international health tourism facilities and intermediary organisations to operate through the applicable authorisation framework. Their websites must also have a foreign-language option, and the names and ownership information shown online must correspond with the authorisation certificate.
Patients should therefore preserve screenshots of:
- clinic name;
- hospital name;
- licence claims;
- accreditation claims.
The online commercial brand may later disappear or change.
3. Guaranteeing a Medical Result
Medical tourism agencies frequently use aggressive sales language.
Examples might include:
“100% guaranteed result.”
“You will definitely lose 40 kilograms.”
“There is zero risk.”
“Your hair transplant will definitely produce full density.”
“Your nose will look exactly like this simulation.”
These statements can create serious consumer-law and healthcare advertising issues.
Turkish consumer law requires commercial advertising to be truthful and prohibits deceptive practices capable of materially affecting consumer decisions. Advertisers must be able to substantiate claims made in commercial advertisements.
A medical tourism company should therefore be extremely cautious about transforming probabilistic medical treatment into guaranteed commercial outcomes.
4. Selling a Package That Is Not Delivered
Suppose an agency sells:
“All-inclusive rhinoplasty package — surgery, five-star hotel, private transport, interpreter and twelve months postoperative support.”
After payment:
- the hotel is different;
- transfer is unavailable;
- no interpreter is provided;
- postoperative support ends after the patient leaves Turkey.
This can create direct liability concerning the intermediary’s own contractual performance.
Under Consumer Protection Law No. 6502, a service that does not conform to contractual or advertised characteristics can qualify as defective service.
Potential remedies under Article 15 can include, depending on the circumstances:
- re-performance;
- correction;
- proportionate price reduction;
- withdrawal from the contract.
Claims for additional damages under general principles may also remain available where the statutory requirements are satisfied.
5. Failure to Provide Promised Translation
Language is particularly important in international healthcare.
The agency may undertake to provide an interpreter.
If the interpreter simply fails to appear, the agency may have failed to perform the intermediary service it sold.
A more serious case can arise where the interpreter materially mistranslates:
- the operation;
- postoperative instructions;
- urgent medical symptoms.
However, an important distinction must remain.
Providing an interpreter does not transfer the doctor’s informed-consent obligation entirely to the intermediary.
The healthcare provider must still ensure that medical information and consent are properly handled under patient-rights law.
The intermediary’s liability would arise from its own defective interpretation or organisational service.
6. Postoperative Messages That Delay Emergency Treatment
This can become particularly serious.
Consider the following example.
A British patient undergoes sleeve gastrectomy.
After discharge she messages the agency coordinator:
“I have severe abdominal pain, fever and a heart rate of 130.”
The coordinator replies:
“This is normal. Do not go to hospital.”
The patient follows that advice.
A gastric leak is diagnosed much later and severe sepsis develops.
The agency may argue:
“We are only a tourism intermediary.”
But the legal analysis cannot stop there if the intermediary actually gave medical-looking advice that caused the patient to delay treatment.
Questions may include:
- What role did the agency represent it was performing?
- Was the coordinator communicating on behalf of the healthcare team?
- Was the message transmitted to the doctor?
- Did the patient reasonably rely on the advice?
- Did the delay worsen the injury?
The doctor and hospital may separately face liability for postoperative care.
The intermediary may have an additional claim against it if its own communication contributed causally to the loss.
7. Failure to Forward Urgent Medical Information
The agency may not itself provide medical advice but may operate as the communication channel promised to the patient.
For example:
“Send us a message 24/7 and we will immediately contact your clinical team.”
If the patient reports a medical emergency and the agency fails to transmit the message despite specifically undertaking that service, its own contractual and organisational conduct may require examination.
The current Regulation itself requires an authorised intermediary to maintain infrastructure capable of responding to calls 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in at least two foreign languages, either directly or through a contracted call centre.
This regulatory requirement illustrates that communication is not incidental to the intermediary model.
8. Hotel, Transport and Transfer Failures
The agency is directly within its ordinary field when the complaint concerns:
- accommodation;
- transport;
- airport transfer.
Under the 2025 Regulation, these services must be provided through travel agencies authorised under Law No. 1618 unless the health tourism intermediary itself has the appropriate travel-agency authority.
Suppose a postoperative patient is promised medically appropriate private transportation but no vehicle appears and the patient is left without safe transport.
Or a transport accident occurs because of negligent service.
Those facts involve a different liability analysis from surgical malpractice, but they can still form part of the overall medical-tourism dispute.
9. Hidden Agency Charges
Pricing transparency is another important issue.
Under Article 12 of the 2025 International Health Tourism Regulation, the intermediary organisation must provide an itemised breakdown of charges requested for services such as:
- accommodation;
- transportation;
- transfer;
- interpretation;
- consultancy.
The healthcare facility separately has its own invoicing and itemisation obligations for healthcare services.
This distinction can be highly useful for patients.
If a company charges one large amount described only as:
“medical package — €12,000,”
the patient should ask:
How much was paid for surgery?
How much was the agency fee?
How much was the hotel?
How much was translation or transfer?
The answer may later determine which defendant is responsible for a refund.
Who Received the Money Matters
Patients should preserve proof of payment.
Ask:
Did I pay the hospital?
Did I pay the surgeon?
Did I pay the medical tourism company?
Was the full treatment price paid to one agency bank account?
Payment destination is not necessarily conclusive regarding liability.
But it is highly relevant evidence regarding:
- contractual structure;
- representations;
- package organisation.
Where an agency took the entire treatment payment and presented itself as the sole provider of a complete package, a court may need to examine the real scope of the obligations it undertook rather than relying only on the label “intermediary.”
What If the Agency Says “We Are Only a Booking Platform”?
The court should examine conduct rather than merely a contractual label.
A company cannot necessarily avoid every responsibility simply by inserting:
“We are only an intermediary and have no liability whatsoever”
into standard terms if its actual activities were much broader.
Questions can include:
- Who selected the doctor?
- Who made the medical promises?
- Who determined the package?
- Who received payment?
- Who communicated the risks?
- Who provided postoperative instructions?
- Who dealt with complaints?
The more extensive the agency’s role, the more important its own conduct becomes.
At the same time, it would also be incorrect to automatically make a genuine logistics intermediary responsible for every independent act of a surgeon.
Each obligation must be identified individually.
Can an Agency Be Responsible Together With the Hospital and Doctor?
Potentially, depending on the facts and legal basis.
Multiple participants can contribute to the same injury.
For example:
The surgeon negligently creates a complication.
The hospital negligently fails to recognise it.
The intermediary negligently tells the patient that emergency symptoms are normal and prevents timely reassessment.
These are three different failures.
If they combine to cause the same final injury, the legal analysis may need to consider multiple defendants and the general Turkish rules governing responsibility for the same damage.
But joint liability should not be presumed automatically merely because three companies participated in the patient’s journey.
The claimant should identify what each defendant did wrong.
The 2025 Regulation and Medical Malpractice Responsibility
The original wording of Article 6(3) of the April 2025 Regulation is particularly significant.
It states that the healthcare facility and intermediary organisation are responsible for the healthcare and intermediary services received by the international health tourist in Turkey according to the type of service provided, and it included complications and medical malpractice arising after healthcare within that responsibility framework.
However, the 2026 judicial developments must be mentioned.
On 18 June 2026, the Istanbul Chamber of Dentists reported that the Council of State’s 10th Chamber had issued a stay-of-execution decision concerning parts of the Regulation.
According to that announcement, execution of the compulsory complication-insurance rule was stayed and the word “complication” in the provision concerning responsibility of healthcare facilities and intermediary organisations was affected by the Council of State decision. The underlying proceedings were reported as continuing.
Therefore, as of September 2026, it would be inaccurate to state:
“Every authorised medical tourism agency is automatically liable for every medical complication.”
That proposition is too broad.
The safer legal analysis is:
responsibility follows the service supplied and the agency’s own legally relevant role, while medical malpractice and clinical failures must be analysed according to the actual acts of the healthcare professionals and facility.
A Genuine Complication Is Not the Same as Agency Negligence
Suppose a patient undergoes technically correct rhinoplasty.
A recognised unavoidable complication develops.
The surgeon treats it properly.
The patient was adequately informed.
The agency correctly performed all promised services.
There is no logical basis for saying the intermediary automatically committed wrongdoing simply because a complication happened.
This is one reason the 2026 Council of State development concerning the word “complication” is important.
Agency liability requires a proper legal basis.
Medical Malpractice Is Different
Now consider a different case.
The surgeon commits technical malpractice.
The agency did nothing wrong except arrange the appointment.
The doctor and healthcare facility may face liability.
The agency’s responsibility will require separate analysis.
But if the agency:
- falsely guaranteed the surgeon’s qualifications;
- misrepresented the hospital;
- assumed responsibility for postoperative support;
- concealed known treatment problems;
the situation changes.
The same patient may then have different claims against different defendants.
Complaints Must Be Evaluated
The 2025 Regulation requires both healthcare facilities and intermediary organisations to evaluate complaints arising in health tourism, undertake corrective and preventive activities and make necessary improvements.
Therefore, a regulated medical tourism company should not simply disappear after the patient complains.
Foreign patients should keep written records of:
- complaint date;
- response;
- refund offer;
- revision proposal;
- refusal.
This correspondence may become important evidence.
Agency Websites and Social Media
The Regulation requires healthcare facilities and intermediary organisations to maintain websites with a foreign-language option.
The names and ownership titles shown on the website must correspond with the legal identity shown in the authorisation certificate.
This helps address a common medical tourism problem.
A patient may know only a brand such as:
“Beautiful Turkey Surgery.”
But the actual legal company may have a completely different corporate name.
Before paying, patients should identify the legal entity.
After a dispute, screenshots of the old website can be particularly valuable.
Misleading Advertising Can Create Separate Liability
Consumer Protection Law No. 6502 prohibits misleading commercial advertising and unfair commercial practices.
Advertisers must be able to prove the accuracy of factual advertising claims.
The law also treats practices as unfair where they fail professional diligence requirements and materially distort, or are likely materially to distort, consumer economic behaviour.
For medical tourism agencies, potentially problematic statements include:
- false qualifications;
- guaranteed outcomes;
- false hospital accreditation;
- misleading before-and-after photographs;
- fake discounts;
- concealed additional costs.
A patient can therefore have an advertising or consumer-protection complaint even before the question of medical malpractice is decided.
Agency Liability for Before-and-After Marketing
Before-and-after photographs can be powerful sales tools.
But photographs can be misleading where:
- edited;
- unrepresentative;
- taken under materially different conditions;
- falsely presented as results of the named surgeon.
A patient who relied on those claims should preserve the advertisements.
Consumer law recognises the relevance of representations made through advertisements and online portals when evaluating whether a service possessed the characteristics represented to the consumer.
Data-protection and healthcare advertising rules can additionally arise where identifiable patient photographs were used.
Can the Agency Draft the Informed Consent?
An agency can help with logistics or translation.
But informed consent is fundamentally a healthcare duty.
A salesperson cannot replace the surgeon merely by saying:
“There are no major risks; just sign the hospital form.”
The doctor or relevant healthcare professional must comply with Turkish patient-rights rules governing medical information and consent.
Where the agency actively gives incorrect medical information, however, that may become evidence of its own misconduct.
The claims against the agency and medical provider should be analysed separately.
What About a Turkish-Only Consent Form?
A foreign patient who does not understand Turkish may face a serious informed-consent issue.
The existence of an agency interpreter does not automatically solve the problem.
The questions are:
- Was the medical information actually translated?
- Was the interpreter competent?
- Did the doctor explain the material risks?
- Did the patient understand the procedure?
If the agency expressly promised translation and failed to provide it, that may support an additional intermediary-services claim.
The healthcare provider’s own consent responsibility nevertheless remains.
Can the Agency Be Liable for Patient Data?
Yes, potentially.
Medical tourism agencies frequently process:
- passports;
- photographs;
- medical reports;
- contact details;
- treatment information.
They can therefore have independent data-protection obligations under Turkey’s KVKK regime.
If an agency unnecessarily discloses a patient’s medical file, sends photographs to the wrong person or mishandles health data, the claim may involve privacy and data protection rather than surgical malpractice.
This can exist independently of the medical outcome.
Refund Claims Against Medical Tourism Agencies
A patient may potentially seek a refund from an intermediary where the intermediary service itself was not supplied as agreed.
Examples include:
- promised accommodation not provided;
- paid transfer not provided;
- interpretation absent;
- consultation service never supplied;
- package cancelled.
Under consumer law, defective service can support remedies including re-performance, correction, price reduction and withdrawal, according to the circumstances.
A full refund of the medical treatment price is a different matter where that money actually related to treatment performed by a separate healthcare facility.
The payment structure must be examined.
Revision Surgery Abroad
Suppose the patient undergoes failed surgery in Turkey and then requires corrective treatment in the United Kingdom.
Potential claims may include:
- revision surgery costs;
- additional medical expenses;
- travel related to necessary corrective care;
- lost earnings;
- non-material damages.
But the patient must identify who caused each loss.
If the damage resulted from surgical malpractice, the doctor and hospital may be the principal medical defendants.
If agency misconduct contributed, the intermediary may become an additional defendant.
Foreign revision records can be very valuable in establishing causation.
What Evidence Should a Foreign Patient Preserve?
A medical tourism liability file should include:
- Original advertisement.
- Agency website screenshots.
- Authorisation information.
- Treatment quotation.
- Package description.
- Contract.
- Proof of payment.
- WhatsApp communications.
- Statements about the surgeon.
- Statements about the hospital.
- Promised medical result.
- Hotel and transfer promises.
- Interpreter communications.
- Hospital records.
- Operative report.
- Consent forms.
- Postoperative messages.
- Complaints and agency responses.
- Refund or revision offers.
- Foreign corrective-treatment records.
Do not delete WhatsApp conversations after the dispute begins.
The messages may establish the entire contractual relationship.
Which Company Should the Patient Sue?
There is no universal answer.
A claim may potentially involve:
the surgeon,
the hospital,
the clinic company,
the medical tourism intermediary,
or a combination of them.
The patient should identify:
- who contracted;
- who promised;
- who performed;
- who received money;
- who caused the damage.
This defendant mapping should be completed before filing.
Naming every company in the treatment chain without analysing its role can create unnecessary procedural problems.
Private Medical Tourism and Consumer Law
A foreign individual purchasing private medical-tourism services for personal purposes can potentially qualify as a consumer within the Turkish consumer-law framework.
Consumer Protection Law applies to consumer transactions involving services, while Articles 13–15 regulate defective services and corresponding consumer remedies.
For 2026, disputes worth less than 186,000 TL fall within the monetary jurisdiction of the Consumer Arbitration Committees.
For disputes of 186,000 TL or more, the arbitration committees cannot decide the matter; the official Ministry guidance directs qualifying consumer disputes to mandatory mediation under Article 73/A and then Consumer Court if no settlement is reached.
Serious medical malpractice claims will often exceed this level.
Does the Foreign Patient Have to Remain in Turkey to Sue?
Generally, no.
Leaving Turkey after treatment does not automatically eliminate the claim.
A foreign patient can potentially appoint Turkish counsel and have many steps carried out while living abroad.
These may include:
- obtaining records;
- identifying the intermediary;
- checking authorisation;
- sending formal claims;
- conducting mandatory mediation;
- filing the lawsuit;
- presenting foreign medical evidence.
Personal attendance may become necessary in particular cases, especially for medical examination, but foreign patients do not generally need to relocate to Turkey.
Does an Agency Contract Choosing Another Country’s Court End the Turkish Claim?
Not necessarily.
Medical tourism agreements sometimes contain clauses such as:
“All disputes shall be resolved exclusively under English law.”
or:
“Only the courts of Country X are competent.”
The effectiveness of such clauses requires specific analysis under Turkish international private law, procedural law and consumer-protection rules.
A foreign patient should not simply accept the agency’s assertion that:
“You signed our terms, so Turkish courts can never hear the dispute.”
Jurisdiction and applicable-law clauses require legal review.
Regulatory Complaint Versus Compensation Claim
Foreign patients should distinguish two objectives.
A complaint to the authorities can concern:
- authorisation;
- regulatory non-compliance;
- misleading health-tourism operations.
But regulatory sanctions are not automatically compensation paid to the patient.
A compensation claim generally requires the appropriate:
- consumer;
- contractual;
- tort;
- medical malpractice
route.
Both processes can potentially exist at the same time.
The 2025 Regulation provides for inspection and administrative sanctions against healthcare facilities and intermediaries that violate its standards, including suspension or cancellation of authorisation in specified circumstances.
Practical Example 1: Agency Only Arranges the Appointment
A patient contacts an authorised intermediary.
The intermediary accurately identifies the hospital and surgeon and arranges transport.
The surgeon commits an unforeseeable technical error during surgery.
The agency has performed its own services correctly.
In that situation, the medical liability claim may principally concern:
- surgeon;
- healthcare facility.
The agency is not automatically negligent merely because it introduced the patient to the hospital.
Practical Example 2: Agency Misrepresents the Surgeon
The agency tells a patient:
“Your operation will be performed by a senior specialist.”
The patient discovers after surgery that someone else performed the operation.
The agency’s representation directly influenced the patient’s decision.
Even if the medical malpractice issue must still be proved separately, the misleading representation may create an independent contractual or consumer-law claim against the intermediary.
Practical Example 3: Agency Delays Emergency Care
After surgery, the patient repeatedly reports:
- fever;
- shortness of breath;
- severe pain.
The agency’s coordinator tells the patient:
“You do not need to contact the hospital.”
The patient deteriorates.
Expert evidence later shows that immediate medical review would probably have reduced the injury.
The agency’s communication may then become relevant to causation in addition to the healthcare provider’s postoperative duties.
Practical Example 4: All-Inclusive Package Is Not Delivered
A dental patient purchases:
- implants;
- hotel;
- transport;
- interpretation.
The agency provides the dental treatment arrangement but fails to supply hotel and transport services for which it received payment.
The intermediary may face a direct defective-service claim concerning those components even if the dental work itself was medically appropriate.
Practical Example 5: Botched Plastic Surgery Plus Misleading Advertising
A foreign patient selects a surgeon because the agency advertises:
“Zero complication rate and guaranteed perfect results.”
The operation produces permanent deformity because of proven medical negligence.
The medical claim may lie against the healthcare provider.
The agency’s misleading representations can additionally be examined under consumer and advertising law.
Multiple legal bases may therefore exist in the same medical tourism dispute.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is a medical tourism agency responsible if surgery goes wrong in Turkey?
Not automatically. Liability generally depends on the services undertaken by the agency and whether the agency itself committed a legally relevant breach. The doctor and hospital remain central where the allegation concerns medical treatment. The 2025 Regulation expressly links healthcare-facility and intermediary responsibility to the type of service supplied.
Can I sue the agency and hospital together?
Potentially, where each committed a breach that contributed to the loss. Joint liability should be assessed according to the individual facts rather than presumed automatically.
Is the agency responsible for the surgeon’s technical mistake?
Not merely because it booked the surgeon. But liability may arise on a separate basis if the agency misrepresented the surgeon, assumed wider obligations or otherwise contributed to the patient’s damage.
Does a medical tourism agency need a licence in Turkey?
Yes. Under the 2025 Regulation, international health-tourism intermediary organisations require an authorisation certificate issued through USHAŞ.
Must the hospital also be authorised?
Healthcare facilities operating within international health tourism are subject to the separate healthcare-facility authorisation framework.
Can an agency guarantee my medical result?
Medical guarantees can create serious legal and advertising issues. Consumer law prohibits misleading advertising and requires factual advertising claims to be substantiated.
Can an agency be responsible for a misleading doctor profile?
Potentially, particularly where the representation was false, material and influenced the patient’s treatment decision.
Can it be responsible for a bad interpreter?
Potentially, where interpretation was part of the promised service and defective translation caused legally compensable harm. The doctor’s own informed-consent obligation remains separate.
Does the agency have to provide 24/7 support?
The current Regulation requires an authorised intermediary to have infrastructure capable of handling calls 24/7 in at least two foreign languages, either itself or through a contracted call centre.
Can an agency charge one unexplained package price?
Article 12 requires intermediaries to provide an itemised breakdown of charges for services including accommodation, transportation, transfer, interpretation and consultancy.
Can I claim a refund for agency services that were never provided?
Potentially. Defective service under Turkish consumer law can support remedies such as re-performance, price reduction or withdrawal depending on the circumstances.
Is the agency automatically liable for medical complications?
No. This would be too broad, particularly following the 2026 Council of State development concerning the Regulation’s wording on “complication.” Agency responsibility should be examined according to its actual service and conduct.
What happened to the 2025 complication provision?
The Regulation originally expressly referred to complications within the healthcare facility/intermediary responsibility framework. In June 2026, the Istanbul Chamber of Dentists reported a Council of State stay-of-execution decision affecting the word “complication” and the compulsory complication-insurance provision, with litigation continuing.
Can the agency be responsible for postoperative WhatsApp advice?
Potentially, particularly where the intermediary assumed that communication role, gave incorrect advice or negligently failed to transmit urgent symptoms and the error contributed to additional injury.
Can I use WhatsApp messages as evidence?
They can be highly relevant in establishing representations, package terms, postoperative communications and complaints. Preserve the complete conversation.
What if all payment went to the agency?
That fact is important but not automatically decisive. The legal structure should examine what the payment covered, which services the agency promised and what amount related to the healthcare facility.
What if the agency says it is “only an intermediary”?
The court can examine the company’s actual conduct and contractual role. A label in standard terms does not necessarily resolve the legal question.
Can a medical tourism company be liable for data protection violations?
Potentially. If it processes passports, photographs or health records, its conduct may also be subject to Turkish personal-data protection law.
Which court handles an agency dispute?
Private medical-tourism disputes involving individual consumers commonly engage the consumer-law framework, though the precise jurisdiction depends on the structure of the claim and defendants.
What is the Consumer Arbitration Committee threshold in 2026?
For 2026, disputes below 186,000 TL fall within the Consumer Arbitration Committee regime.
What happens for claims of 186,000 TL or more?
Consumer Arbitration Committees cannot decide those claims; where the dispute falls within Consumer Court jurisdiction, official Ministry guidance directs parties to mandatory mediation and then Consumer Court if necessary.
Can I sue after returning to my country?
Potentially, yes. Returning abroad does not automatically extinguish claims arising from medical tourism services supplied in Turkey.
Do I need to come back to Turkey immediately?
Not necessarily. Many legal steps can be carried out through appropriately authorised Turkish counsel.
Conclusion: Medical Tourism Agency Liability Depends on What the Agency Actually Did
The modern medical tourism model makes legal responsibility more complicated than ordinary doctor-patient treatment.
A foreign patient may interact with:
a surgeon,
a hospital,
a medical tourism intermediary,
a hotel,
a transport company,
and
an interpreter.
All may participate in the same commercial package.
But Turkish law does not necessarily make them legally interchangeable.
The 26 April 2025 International Health Tourism and Tourist Health Regulation creates an explicit regulatory structure separating healthcare facilities from intermediary organisations.
An intermediary is defined as an authorised legal entity providing consultancy, healthcare-facility organisation, accommodation, transportation and transfer services.
Both healthcare facilities and intermediaries must have the appropriate international health-tourism authorisation before operating within the regulated system.
Most importantly, the Regulation expresses responsibility according to the type of service supplied.
This should be the starting point of every medical tourism liability investigation.
When the allegation is:
“The surgeon cut the wrong structure,”
the surgeon’s clinical conduct must be examined.
When the allegation is:
“The hospital ignored postoperative bleeding,”
hospital and medical-team responsibility become central.
When the allegation is:
“The agency falsely told me that this doctor was a particular specialist,”
the intermediary’s own representations become relevant.
When the allegation is:
“The agency sold accommodation and interpretation but never supplied them,”
that can constitute a direct intermediary-services dispute.
And when several separate failures combine to produce one serious injury, multiple defendants may need to be investigated.
Foreign patients should therefore avoid accepting simplistic responses such as:
“We are only the agency, so we can never be responsible.”
That statement can be as legally inaccurate as saying:
“The agency booked the treatment, therefore it is responsible for every surgical error.”
Both positions are too broad.
The correct questions are:
What did the agency promise?
What did the hospital undertake?
Who made the medical decision?
Who performed the treatment?
Who communicated with the patient after discharge?
Who received the money?
What caused the actual damage?
The answers often appear in documents the patient already possesses.
A WhatsApp conversation may prove that the intermediary guaranteed a particular surgeon.
A bank transfer may show that the entire package price was paid to the agency.
An advertisement may prove a false claim about accreditation.
Postoperative messages may establish when dangerous symptoms were reported and who advised the patient to wait.
For this reason, evidence preservation is essential.
Foreign patients should save:
advertisements,
website screenshots,
contracts,
invoices,
bank transfers,
WhatsApp communications,
medical reports,
and
postoperative complaint records.
The 2025 Regulation also gives patients valuable transparency protections.
Intermediaries must provide itemised charges for their accommodation, transportation, transfer, interpretation and consultancy services. Their websites must provide foreign-language options, and the legal identity displayed online must correspond with the authorisation information.
The Regulation also requires agencies to maintain 24/7 communication infrastructure in at least two foreign languages and requires both health facilities and intermediary organisations to evaluate health-tourism complaints and carry out corrective and preventive activities.
These are not merely marketing recommendations.
They are regulatory obligations.
Consumer law adds another layer.
A service that does not possess the characteristics promised in the contract, advertisement or online representation can qualify as defective.
The service provider is required to perform its service in conformity with the contract, and consumers can have remedies including re-performance, repair/correction, price reduction and withdrawal depending on the circumstances.
Misleading advertising is separately prohibited.
A medical tourism company making claims about:
surgeon qualifications,
medical guarantees,
hospital status,
or
treatment outcomes
should therefore be able to substantiate what it tells foreign patients.
The 2026 Council of State development also requires caution when describing intermediary responsibility.
The April 2025 Regulation originally expressly included complications within the healthcare facility/intermediary responsibility language.
However, the Istanbul Chamber of Dentists reported on 18 June 2026 that the Council of State’s 10th Chamber had intervened in relation to the word “complication” and the compulsory complication-insurance requirement while the underlying proceedings continued.
Accordingly, one should not state in September 2026 that:
“Every medical tourism agency is automatically liable for every unavoidable complication.”
The more accurate approach is to investigate the agency’s actual contractual, organisational and informational role.
Private claims will often engage consumer law.
For 2026, disputes worth less than 186,000 TL fall within the Consumer Arbitration Committee regime, whereas disputes of 186,000 TL or more cannot be determined there and, where Consumer Court jurisdiction applies, generally proceed through mandatory mediation before litigation.
Serious medical tourism malpractice disputes involving revision surgery, permanent disability or substantial non-material damages will frequently exceed that threshold.
Finally, foreign patients should understand that leaving Turkey does not automatically prevent a claim.
A Turkish lawyer can potentially investigate:
the doctor’s role,
the hospital’s role,
the agency’s authorisation,
the contractual package,
payments,
advertising claims,
and
postoperative communications
while the patient remains abroad.
The patient may also submit medical records from the home country showing what corrective treatment was required.
The central principle can therefore be stated simply:
In Turkish medical tourism law, liability should follow the service undertaken and the failure that actually caused the loss. A medical tourism intermediary is not automatically responsible for every act of a doctor, but neither can it automatically avoid liability by calling itself “only an agency” when its own promises, representations, organisation or communications contributed to the patient’s damage.
Legal Disclaimer
This article provides general information concerning medical tourism intermediary liability, healthcare malpractice and foreign-patient rights under Turkish law as of September 2026. It does not constitute individual legal advice.
The responsibility of a medical tourism intermediary depends on its authorisation, contractual role, representations, services actually supplied and causal contribution to the patient’s loss.
Clinical medical liability of doctors and hospitals should be distinguished from contractual, organisational, consumer-law and data-protection liability of intermediary organisations.
The legal status of parts of the April 2025 International Health Tourism Regulation concerning complications was also affected by Council of State proceedings during 2026 and should be verified according to the latest procedural status when an actual claim is assessed.
Each medical tourism dispute should therefore be individually analysed by identifying every participant in the treatment chain, the obligations undertaken by each participant and the evidence showing how the patient’s loss occurred.
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