Civil liability of the Substitute Doctors in Iraqi law

Specialists may rely on other doctors to replace them in surgical or non-surgical procedures or to run medical consultation clinics in public hospitals or private clinics. These substitutes may not have the same experience as the original doctors, and may make mistakes that puts patients’ lives at risk and sometimes those mistakes can lead to their deaths. The problem of this study is the lack of specific legal regulation for the subject of research in Iraq and the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, which requires us to rely on the general provisions of civil law for liability and compensation. Moreover, The research problem of this research also lies with determination of the nature and legal basis of liability for substitute doctors, also in clarifying the extent of liability of the original doctor that allows the substitute doctor to perform surgery and prescribe medication in his/her place, or to run consultation clinics in public hospitals or private clinics instead of him/her, may lead to catastrophic medical errors.