Injured at a Taiwan hospital: the chart, mediation, and a lawsuit

A foreign patient treated at a Taiwan hospital or clinic can ask the institution for a copy of the chart. Compensation is a separate claim.

The Medical Accident Prevention and Dispute Resolution Act was promulgated on June 22, 2022. Article 45 leaves the effective date to the Executive Yuan. By an order of December 12, 2023, Yuan-Tai-Wei-Zi No. 1121043912, the Act took effect on January 1, 2024. Gazette entry, Article 45. Cases in which investigation or trial had already begun before the Act took effect are not governed by it. Article 43. An injury at a gym, rather than in medical care, is a different kind of claim: a gym-injury lawsuit.

The chart copy

The institution must give the patient it treated a copy of the medical record and, when necessary, a Chinese summary. It may not delay or refuse without cause. The patient pays. Medical Care Act, Article 71. Records are kept for at least seven years. A minor's record is kept at least until seven years after the patient reaches adulthood. Records from a human trial are kept permanently. Article 70.

When a medical dispute has arisen, the institution must, within seven working days from the day after the patient, an agent, a legal representative, or an heir applies, provide a copy of the chart and of the consent forms kept with it. The applicant pays. Medical Accident Prevention and Dispute Resolution Act, Article 10.

Article 3 uses two different terms. A medical accident is a major injury or death resulting from medical services at a medical institution, and it does not include a result that the disease itself, or the medical treatment, could not avoid. A medical dispute is a dispute in which the patient's side believes an adverse clinical outcome is the responsibility of medical personnel or the institution. A party includes the personnel, the institution, the patient, and others who may sue. Article 3. The seven-working-day copy rule is tied to a medical dispute. The general copy right in Article 71 is not limited to that definition.

Mediation comes before the civil case

For a medical accident, a hospital sets up a care group. Within five working days from the day after the accident, the group explains and communicates with the patient, the family, or an agent, and offers help. A hospital of 99 beds or fewer, and a clinic, may appoint a professional or entrust an organization. If language, culture, hearing, speech, or another barrier makes communication difficult, a person with the relevant training assists. The institution keeps a record of that explanation and care for at least three years. Where the patient is a person eligible for relief under the Drug Injury Relief Act (藥害救濟法), the childbirth-accident relief statute (生產事故救濟條例), or the vaccine-injury provisions of the Communicable Disease Control Act (傳染病防治法), the institution must on its own provide the information and help. Article 6.

Unless every party agrees, regrets, apologies, concessions, and similar statements made in that care process by the institution, the care group, the professionals, the personnel, or their agents may not be used as evidence or as the basis of a judgment or of an administrative sanction. Article 7. A professional consultation, and a medical-dispute analysis, from the foundation commissioned under Article 4 are in the same position: they are not evidence in the case, and not a basis for an administrative sanction, unless all parties agree. Article 4.

Cities and counties form medical-dispute mediation committees. Article 12. An application is made to the committee on its form. If the patient's domicile or residence and the institution are in the same city or county, that committee mediates. If they are in different cities or counties, the committee where the institution sits mediates. With the agreement of the parties and of the committee that receives the application, another committee may do it. Article 13.

A meeting is held within 45 days from the day the application file is complete, and mediation is finished within three months. If necessary, it may be extended once, by three months, and once more if the parties agree. Mediation not finished in that period is deemed unsuccessful. Article 14.

Before the parties bring a civil action on a medical dispute, they must apply for mediation under this Act. Article 99, paragraph 1, subparagraph 3 of the Medical Care Act, and the Township and County-Administered City Mediation Act, do not apply. If they sue without applying, the first-instance court transfers the case to the competent committee, and the lawsuit stops during mediation. If mediation fails and a suit is filed within six months from the day after the certificate of unsuccessful mediation is served, the suit is treated as filed when mediation was applied for. Article 15. That sequence governs the civil action. It does not postpone a criminal complaint.

After a court approves a mediation, a party who has a ground to treat it as void or voidable must sue in the approving court within 30 days of learning of the ground. Five years after the approval, that suit is no longer available. Article 29.

Fault for damages, and a criminal complaint, are judged separately

Medical practice must meet the care that medicine requires. Medical personnel are liable in damages for harm to a patient only for intent, or for a breach of that duty of care that also goes beyond reasonable clinical professional discretion. The same limit applies to their criminal liability for negligently causing a patient's death or injury. Both are judged by the medical custom, the level of care, the facilities, the working conditions, and the urgency at that place and time. The institution is liable in damages for intent or negligence. Medical Care Act, Article 82.

The Criminal Code still states the offenses. Negligently causing death is punishable by up to five years, detention, or a fine of up to NT$500,000. Article 276. Negligently causing injury is punishable by up to one year, detention, or a fine of up to NT$100,000; if the injury is serious, up to three years, detention, or a fine of up to NT$300,000. Article 284. Those are statutory ranges. They are not a prediction of the sentence in any case, and Article 82 still has to be met before medical personnel are criminally liable for negligence.

Article 284 is an offense that requires a complaint. Article 276 is not on that list. Criminal Code, Article 287. For an offense that requires a complaint, the complaint is made within six months from the time the person entitled to complain knows who the offender is. If several people may complain, one person's delay does not bind the others. Code of Criminal Procedure, Article 237. A complaint or a report may be written or oral, to a prosecutor or a judicial police officer; an oral one is written into a transcript. Article 242.

The Judicial Yuan is to designate courts to set up medical professional divisions, staffed by judges with medical knowledge or experience of these cases. Medical Care Act, Article 83. A criminal file and a civil claim for the same events can both exist. The criminal case does not itself award the money.

Relief under the statutes named in Article 6 depends on meeting their eligibility requirements. The institution’s duty to provide information and assistance is separate from liability for medical negligence. These provisions do not establish whether an insurer will cover an amount agreed in mediation or awarded by a court.

Appointing someone in Taiwan

A person may apply for mediation through an agent. The power of attorney states the applicant's and the agent's name, date of birth, identification number, occupation, telephone, domicile or residence, and the period of authority. If the applicant has no domicile, residence, office, or place of business in Taiwan, the applicant must appoint an agent who has a domicile, an office, or a place of business here. Regulations on the Organization and Operation of Medical Dispute Mediation Committees, Article 7. How to instruct a Taiwan lawyer from abroad is discussed in hiring a Taiwan lawyer from abroad.

For advice on a records request or medical dispute, contact Attorney Wei Tseng (曾雋崴), Hovering International Law Firm. Identify the institution, treatment dates, records requested and any response in your first enquiry: wei@hoveringlaw.com.tw. Address: 7F-2, No. 35, Sec. 1, Chengde Rd., Datong Dist., Taipei City 103, Taiwan (103 臺北市大同區承德路一段35號7樓之2).

Official sources

• Medical Accident Prevention and Dispute Resolution Act, Article 3, Article 4 in the full text, Article 6, Article 7, Article 10, Article 12, Article 13 in the mediation chapter, Article 14, Article 15, Article 29, Article 43, and Article 45.
• Executive Yuan order of December 12, 2023, setting January 1, 2024 as the effective date. The Ministry of Health and Welfare also states that the Act took effect on January 1, 2024. Ministry page.
• Regulations on the Organization and Operation of Medical Dispute Mediation Committees, Article 7.
• Medical Care Act, Article 70, Article 71, Article 82, and Article 83.
• Criminal Code, Article 276, Article 284, and Article 287.
• Code of Criminal Procedure, Article 237 and Article 242.

Checked: October 1, 2026