Checking that a doctor is registered to practise in the UK
Updated June 2008
- Checking a doctor's registration
- Requirements for registration
- Additional requirements for some overseas doctors
- Continuing professional development and revalidation
Checking a doctor's registration
The BMA is often approached with questions about the registration status of individual doctors and whether they are qualified to practise in the UK. However, the BMA is the doctors’ trade union and professional association and we are not involved in the registration process.
It is the General Medical Council (GMC) that regulates doctors and all doctors must be registered with the GMC before they can work in the UK. There are around 200,000 registered doctors working in the UK.
Registration is required if a doctor wishes to:
- work as a doctor in the National Health Service (NHS) or in private practice
- prescribe drugs, the sale of which is restricted by law
- sign certificates required for statutory purposes (death certificates, etc)
The LRMP can be searched alphabetically and, for each doctor, the following information is generally provided:
- GMC reference number
- full name
- registration status
- primary medical qualifications
- dates of provisional and full registration
- whether the doctor is on the Specialist Register or GP Register
If you have any enquiries regarding a doctor's registration status, you can also contact the GMC directly. Their contact details are as follows:
General Medical Council
2nd Floor, Regent's Place
350 Euston Road
London NW1 3JN
Tel: (0845) 357 3456
Email: registrationhelp@gmc-uk.org
The GMC cannot confirm where a particular doctor is working, or has worked previously, or provide any contact details. Neither can the GMC provide information on a doctor's particular area of medical expertise, or on whether a particular doctor is qualified to carry out a given medical procedure or treatment.
The BMA website includes a section entitled Tracing a Doctor with guidance for those trying to locate a particular doctor, although, in practice, it can be difficult to find a named doctor.
The GMC's website now provides a facility for searching past fitness to practise decisions regarding investigations conducted by the GMC into the conduct of particular doctors.
New requirements for registration
In October 2007 the GMC introduced a new framework for registering doctors. The changes were designed to assure both public protection and equality of treatment for doctors, and to provide greater clarity for patients, employers and anyone else consulting the Medical Register.
The reforms will affect all doctors granted full registration for the first time and taking up a new job, whether practising in the NHS or privately.
The new system means that, depending on their postgraduate training and level of experience, doctors will apply for either provisional or full registration, irrespective of whether they have qualified in the UK or abroad.
The changes also mean that UK medical graduates and International Medical Graduates (IMGs), new to full registration or returning to the register after a prolonged period of absence, will initially be required to work within a GMC 'approved practice' setting.
There are five main categories of registration for doctors: provisional, full, specialist, GP and temporary full registration. Limited registration, which used to apply to some overseas doctors, was abolished in October 2007.
General eligibility for registration with the GMC and the process of registration depends on:
- the country in which a doctor qualified
- his/her nationality
- the background/experience of the doctor
International Medical Graduates (IMGs), newly qualified UK Graduates (UKGs) and medical practitioners returning to practice after five years’ absence are required to work in an Approved Practice Setting (APS) for a period of at least twelve months.
The GMC describes an APS as “an organisation that has systems for the effective management of doctors, systems for identifying and acting upon concerns about doctors’ fitness to practise, systems to support the provision of relevant training or continuing professional development, and systems for providing regulatory assurance”. There is a list of APSs on the GMC's website.
The GMC also advises doctors who have graduated from a country in the European Economic Area (Ref 1) to ensure that they work in an APS when they first take up employment in the UK under full registration, or if they are restored to the Medical Register after prolonged absence from UK practice.
IMGs applying for full or provisional registration must show that: they hold an acceptable primary medical qualification; they have the requisite knowledge and skills for registration; their fitness to practise is not impaired; and they have the necessary knowledge of English.
IMG doctors may demonstrate their medical knowledge and skills in one of the following ways:
- a pass in the Professional and Linguistic Assessments Board (PLAB) test
- sponsorship by a medical Royal College or other sponsoring body for further postgraduate training
- an acceptable postgraduate qualification
- eligibility for entry to the Specialist or GP Register
Provisional registration
Provisional registration allows newly qualified doctors to undertake the general clinical training they need to attain full registration. A doctor who is provisionally registered is entitled to work only in Foundation Year 1 (F1) posts in Approved Practice Settings (APS) - hospitals or institutions that are approved for the purpose of Foundation Year 1 (F1) services.
Provisional registration is available to the following doctors:
- UK medical graduates who have completed their medical degree at a UK University, recognised in the Medical Act 1983
- IMGs who have an acceptable primary medical qualification and who have passed the PLAB test, but who have not completed an internship
- Nationals from the EEA, Switzerland and other countries with European Community (EC) rights who qualified outside of the EEA and Switzerland
- Nationals from the EEA and Switzerland and doctors who have EC rights who qualified at EEA or Swiss medical schools
- Doctors who have qualified in an EEA member state who wish to apply to do their practical training (internship) in the UK, if the practical training counts towards a medical degree which requires this for compliance with European Medical Directive 93/16/EEC
If they have satisfactorily completed either Foundation Year 1 in the UK, or an equivalent period of postgraduate clinical experience, they can apply for full registration. If they have not, they may apply for provisional registration.
Doctors who have qualified in another European Economic Area (EEA) member country or Switzerland and/or nationals of an EEA country (or non-EEA nationals with EC rights), may also apply for provisional registration for the purpose of carrying out postgraduate clinical training in the UK - posts known as internships.
Full registration
Doctors require full registration for unsupervised medical practice in the NHS or private practice in the UK. As mentioned above, UK doctors who have completed their Foundation Year 1 training under provisional registration are entitled to full registration, as are IMGs who satisfy the GMC’s criteria for postgraduate experience.
Doctors qualifying in other EEA member countries or Switzerland, and who are nationals of an EEA country (or non-EEA nationals with European community rights), are also eligible for full registration.
Doctors qualifying in certain countries - Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia (with certain restrictions), New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa and the West Indies - may be eligible for full registration if they already hold, or have held, provisional registration with the GMC. They also have to provide evidence of their fitness to practise (sometimes known as evidence of 'good character').
Temporary full registration
In certain cases, EEA and other overseas doctors may be granted temporary, full registration if they are coming to the UK to provide specialist medical services for a short period - for example, a leading medical expert coming to demonstrate a specialist procedure.
Specialist registration
Doctors can only take up an NHS consultant post in a medical or surgical specialty (other than a locum consultant appointment) if they are on the GMC's Specialist Register (first introduced in 1997). It is not possible to be on the Specialist Register without also holding full registration.
Although not a legal requirement, doctors wishing to work, unsupervised, in private hospital practice in the UK will also, generally, need to hold specialist registration.
Being on the Specialist Register indicates that a doctor has completed his or her specialist training to the satisfaction of the Postgraduate Medical Education and Training Board (PMETB). The PMETB is the authority that approves the specialist training of doctors, certifying that they have reached the necessary level of competence to be included on the Specialist Register.
There is no separate listing of specialists on the GMC's website. In practice, one can only verify that a particular doctor is on the specialist register by checking that the doctor in question is listed as being a specialist on the List of Registered Medical Practitioners (LRMP).
GP registration
Since 31 March 2006 all doctors working in general practice within the NHS, including locums, have had to be on a GP Register, held by the GMC. Only GP registrars, i.e. doctors training to be GPs, are exempt from being on the GP Register.
Doctors will only be eligible to be included on the GP Register if they have been awarded their Certificate of Completion of Training (CCT) by the Postgraduate Medical Education and Training Board (PMETB).
One can verify that a particular doctor is on the GP Register by entering the name of the doctor concerned in the appropriate search box on the GMC's List of Registered Medical Practitioners; then full details of the doctor's registration status will be provided, including whether they are on the GP Register.
Some additional requirements for some overseas doctors
In terms of nationality, the GMC recognises three types of doctors:
- UK nationals
- Doctors from the European Economic Area (EEA)
- International Medical Graduates (IMGs)
The Home Office is responsible for issuing work permits and visas for doctors, as for other professions. Information about special rules for IMGs is provided on the GMC's website.
With the exception of countries such as Australia and New Zealand, IMGs are also subject to linguistic and clinical tests administered by the GMC.
Doctors from non-EEA countries need to demonstrate an adequate standard of English, usually by attaining a satisfactory score in the International English Language Testing System (IELTS). They also need to take the Professional and Linguistic Assessments Board (PLAB) test, in order to demonstrate that they have the required language skills and clinical knowledge to be able to practise medicine in the UK.
Information on language requirements for overseas doctors can be found on the GMC's website.
Additionally, NHS Trusts are required to carry out checks on the doctors they wish to employ, covering GMC registration, identification, passport credentials and criminal records.
Continuing professional development and revalidation
Doctors need to keep up to date on developments in medicine through continuing professional development (CPD) programmes, which are provided by a wide variety of organisations, including the medical Royal Colleges. The GMC has laid down guidance for doctors on CPD (Ref 2).
It has also been proposed for some time now that doctors wishing to retain their ability to practise medicine will need to go through a process of revalidation. This means they will have to prove to the GMC that they are up to date and fit to practise, and have been practising medicine in line with the GMC's guidance, Good Medical Practice (Ref 3).
In February 2007, the Government published the White Paper 'Trust, Assurance and Safety - the Regulation of Health Professionals in the 21st Century (Ref 4), which outlined plans for a new system of professional regulation, including a system of revalidation for doctors. Chapter 2 of the White Paper covers revalidation.
Specifically, the White Paper recommended that doctors should have to go through a revalidation process, consisting of Relicensing, whereby each doctor’s licence to practise would be subject to renewal every five years, and Specialist Recertification, which would apply to those doctors on the GMC's Specialist or GP Registers.
A number of the reforms to the medical profession are included in the Health and Social Care Bill currently going through Parliament, such as
- establishing a new, independent adjudication body to undertake independent and objective adjudication for professional regulatory bodies (including the GMC)
- ensuring that all healthcare professional regulatory bodies use the civil, rather than criminal, standard of proof in cases they are dealing with
- confirmation that the GMC’s Council is to be made up of an equal proportion of lay and medical members
- detailed changes to the GMC’s governance
- changes to the structure of medical education
- enabling the GMC to issue doctors with licences to practise
Additionally, the GMC has a page on its website which provides updates on the reforms affecting the medical regulation process.
The BMA has also produced regular briefings on the proposed changes to regulation of the medical profession.
References
- The EEA includes the following countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Since 1 June 2002, Swiss nationals, and doctors qualifying in Switzerland who are EEA nationals (or non-EEA nationals with EU rights), are eligible for full registration. This also applies to Swiss nationals who have qualified in an EEA member state.
- General Medical Council. Continued Professional Development. London GMC 2004;http://www.gmc-uk.org/education/continuing_professional_development/cpd_guidance.asp
- General Medical Council. Good Medical Practice, London 2006; http://www.gmc-uk.org/guidance/good_medical_practice/index.asp
- Department of Health. Trust, assurance and safety: the regulation of health professionals Norwich HMSO 2007;http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_065946
- Department of Health. The General Medical Council (Constitution) Order 2008 Norwich HMSO 2008; http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Consultations/Liveconsultations/DH_084777
- Department of Health. Consultation on the Medical Profession (Miscellaneous Amendments) Order 2008 Norwich HMSO 2008;http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Consultations/Closedconsultations/DH_083325