Licensure of Health Professionals
Licensure of Health Professionals
Licensure of Health Professionals
1. Purpose:
1.1. To comply with the Federal Law no. (5) Of 2019 concerning the practice of the human medicine
profession and its amendments, Federal Law No. (5) Of 1984 regarding the practice of some
medical professions by pharmacists and non-physicians and Cabinet Decision no. (40) of 2019
concerning UAE Federal Law concerning Medical Liability and Local Law no. (6) of 2018
1.2. To align with the Dubai plan 2021 and the corresponding Dubai Health Authority (DHA)
strategic objectives.
1.3. To ensure that the documents submitted for licensure to the Health Licensing Department are
adequate and fulfill the requirements stipulated in the Unified Healthcare Professional
Qualification Requirements (PQR) and are in accordance with the applicable federal and local
laws.
1.4. To ensure that highly skilled and competent healthcare professionals are licensed to practice and
provide safe and high quality health services to the population of Dubai.
2. Scope:
2.1. Licensure procedures needed for obtaining a health professional license to practice any health
HF : Health Facility
HP : Healthcare Professional
Authorities: The Regulatory Authorities within the United Arab Emirates according to the
geographical jurisdiction, Ministry of Health and Prevention (MOHAP), Department of Health - Abu
professionals maintain and develop their knowledge and skills throughout their career to ensure that
they retain their capacity to practice safely, effectively and legally within their evolving scope of
training/ experience and other documents that are required to check the eligibility of the health
Crosscheck: is the background screening process from records obtained from law enforcement,
Discontinuity in practice: An interruption of clinical practice exceeding two (2) years as per PQR.
Dubai Medical Registry: Dubai medical registry is a public database maintained by DHA, which
attachment.
Good Standing Certificate: A certificate showing evidence that the healthcare professional is
competent to practice the profession, has not been found guilty of unprofessional conduct, and that
there are no pending or previous disciplinary orders or criminal proceedings against the healthcare
professional. The same licensing authority of the healthcare professional registration / license must
Healthcare Professional: A person who by education, training, certification and licensure is qualified
Logbook: A typed comprehensive record from physicians and dentists with surgical specialties for
the last two (2) years demonstrating clinical competence through mixed major cases, signed, and
stamped by the medical director of the facility or the head of department, mentioning the name, date,
Negative Result: A verification result indicating a negative feedback of the submitted credentials.
Position: The term describing the applicant/ HP designation which consist of Category, Title, and
Specialty.
Positive Result: A verification result indicating that all submitted credentials have been verified
successfully.
Primary Source Verification: A process of validating documents required for licensure from the
Registration: First step into obtaining the license, DHA registration confirms the HP eligibility for
the applied position. HP registration must be activated into a license by a hiring facility in order to
Sheryan: is the DHA Digital gateway for registering and licensing healthcare professionals and
facilities in Dubai.
Unable to Verify Result: A verification result indicating an incomplete verification process related to
failure in providing all necessary credentials, and/or applicant is not responding to verification
in cooperation with The Regulatory Authorities in UAE on the 10th of October 2014, which sets the
professional qualification requirements necessary to license healthcare professionals in the UAE and
4. Policy Statement
4.1. This Policy shall be read in conjunction with the Unified Healthcare Professional Requirements
(PQR).
4.2. All Healthcare Professionals (HP) must be licensed in order to provide healthcare services in the
Emirate of Dubai.
4.3. Health licensing department at the Health Regulation Sector shall review the eligibility of the
4.4. Health Professional Licensing shall be issued following the below steps:
4.4.4. Fulfill the assessment requirements as per PQR and relevant policies therein.
4.4.6. Activation of the Health Professional License by the employing healthcare facility.
4.5. Applicant details must match his/her passport copy, which must be valid and uploaded in the
system. In case of name change, supporting documents must be provided in the application (e.g.
4.6. A valid medical fitness report shall be required for the following:
4.6.1. Registration applications, where there is a physical, mental or emotional condition, which
4.6.2. License Activation and License Renewal applications where the HP is 65 years or above.
1
In positons requiring oral assessment, conditional approval for registration will be granted till a pass result is obtained within 3
months of the approval date.
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4.7. In certain circumstances, the Health Licensing Department, Medical Practice Committee (MPC),
Appeal Committee or Director General (DG) reserve the right to further request additional
4.8. Relevant actions shall be undertaken for the application/registration/license in the following
4.8.3. Professional with criminal record or has been prosecuted and/or convicted by court in any
4.8.4. Confirmation from DHA Medical Fitness Centers of being unfit to practice.
4.8.5. Failure to declare information about pending or confirmed malpractice issued by other
regulatory bodies.
5.1. The following licensing services are available through online licensing system (Sheryan):
5.2. Applications pending for additional documents shall be automatically cancelled after the lapse
5.3. Applicants will be liable for any false, untrue, misleading or misrepresented information or
documents and DHA reserves the right to take the necessary action in this regard.
6.1.1. Applicants shall complete the self-assessment tool and fulfill the PQR requirements for the
applied licensure (certain specialties out of the scope of the PQR document are found in
Appendix 1).
6.2.1. All new applicants and professionals applying for add/upgrade title, shall go through PSV
of their credentials.
a. Positive Result.
c. Negative Result.
a. Education qualifications.
c. Experience (Experience from DHA licensed health facilities shall not require verification
6.2.5. In case of UTV result, the applicant may seek to apply for re-verification of the same
document twice.
6.2.6. For Negative result, the applicant may seek to apply for re-verification of the same
document once.
6.2.7. DHA accepts verification reports issued by other authorities, which it has
agreements/MOU with.
6.3. Assessment
6.3.1. Depending on the applied position, assessment may be an Oral Assessment or a Computer
6.3.2. All applicants shall be given three (3) attempts2 to successfully pass the assessment
modality. Failure to pass upon the third attempt shall result in blocking the applicant from
reapplying (for the same or lower position for the period of two years).
b. Applicants who passed assessment within five (5) years from the date of obtaining the
registration.
d. Professionals applying within two (2) years from the professional license cancellation
date.
2
From the date of PQR implementation.
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6.3.4. Trainees who have completed the necessary training period are required to successfully
6.3.5. Applicants may apply for a re-assessment for CBT with no restriction on duration between
the attempts.
6.3.6. The results report shall indicate a “pass” or “fail” without details of the result of the
assessment.
6.3.7. The cancellation or failure to attend CBT or oral assessment will not be considered a failed
a. For scheduling oral assessment, the applicant shall select an available date or select a
b. In cases where no dates are available in the upcoming 3 months, then the applicant shall
c. Applicants may reschedule the assessment within 5 working days of the set date at no
additional cost.
6.4.1. Applicant must provide legally translated versions of their documents into English or
Arabic.
6.4.2. Applications shall be reviewed by the Health Licensing Department at HRS who may
6.4.3. The applicant shall be listed on the Dubai Medical Registry once the registration is issued.
6.4.4. The validity of the registration is one year from the date of issuance.
6.4.5. If the registration was not activated to a license within the validity period, the HP is
shall be cancelled and a new registration application shall be started by the applicant if
required.
6.4.6. The HP can apply to renew their registration within 90 days before the expiry date of the
who do not plan to practice in Dubai for the time-being but would like to maintain their
6.5.1. Activation of the license is applied though the facility Sheryan account.
6.5.3. The HP can approve requests from several facilities, and their license will be activated on
3
This includes physicians and dentists of surgical specialties practicing at Telehealth facilities for more than 2 years.
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6.5.4. The HP reserves the right to withdraw their approval as long as the facility has not
6.5.5. The validity of the HP license is 1 year unless determined otherwise on Sheryan.
6.5.6. Medical malpractice insurance must be maintained at all times of the HP practice and must
6.5.7. An Interim license (e-copy) shall be issued upon license activation which shall be deemed
6.5.8. The HP is not entitled to practice in a facility which falls under any of the following criteria:
6.5.9. Health facilities must ensure the full-time supervision requirements are met as set out in
(Appendix 3).
6.5.10. A physician/dentist with surgical specialties working full-time at an outpatient facility for
2 years or more, may not be able to join a Hospital or a Day Surgical Center (DSC) as full-
time or part-time without being involved in surgical practice (by providing a surgical
a. Full-Time License:
b. Part-Time License:
Director.
ii. The number of Part-Time licensures allowed for HPs are listed in (Appendix 4). If more
than one scenario applies to the HP, then the higher number of permissions shall be
considered.
iii. The Part –Time license(s) will be set as inactive when the Full-Time license is cancelled
A new Full-Time License is activated and the Medical Director approves the Part-
The Part-Time Facility applies to convert the license to Full-Time within three (3)
months from cancelation. (new license will have the same validity of the previous
Part-Time license)
v. The HP can practice at branches of the Full-Time licensing facility, as selected upon
license activation.
c. Trainee License:
i. HP not meeting PQR experience criteria shall be issued trainee restricted registration
that should be activated into a license on a training facility, until the required
experience is completed.
ii. A HP with a full-time license can have an active trainee license for a different position.
Past the one (1) month period, the Trainee license shall be set to Inactive status for
6.6.1. The updated HP’s license can be updated by the full or part time licensing health facility
6.6.2. Updating the HPs does not impact the validity of the license.
6.7.1. The Health Facility shall apply for renewal of a HP license within three (3) months of its
expiry.
a. Full time license can be renewed after six (6) months of expiry with penalties.
b. Part-time and Trainee license will be set to Expired with no penalties and without the
6.7.2. Trainee license cannot be renewed beyond the trainee restriction period.
6.8.1. If the HP resigned, the Health Facility shall cancel the HP’s license.
6.8.2. The HP is not required to submit their license card to DHA following cancellation.
6.8.3. The cancellation of license will not proceed in the following scenarios:
a. The HP is the Medical Director, where the Medical Director has to be changed prior to
the cancellation.
c. The HP is under investigation, where the investigation outcome must be issued prior to
the cancellation.
a. The registration status will be set as “Active in Transition” for ninety (90) days, where
6.8.5. In case the Health Facility refuses to cancel the HP license, the HP can escalate the issue
to DHA through the ‘Raise license cancelation issues’ service with any of the following
supporting documents:
6.9.1. GSC shall be issued for currently and previously licensed HPs after completing three (3)
months of licensure.
6.9.2. GSC is an electronic certificate generated by the licensing system into the HP account.
6.9.3. GSC can be verified via DHA website through “Verify Document” service in Sheryan portal.
6.9.4. The issued certificate shall include details of the HP License suspension and revocation in
in the past two (2) years, or is under active investigation the certificate will be titled as
“Current Status”.
6.9.6. GSC information is limited to the HP medical practice and does not indicate non-medical
6.10.1. DHA - through it responsible party such as MPC, Appeal Committee or DG - may take the
a. Precautionary suspension, until the final decision is reached, including but not limited to
b. Suspension.
c. Revocation.
6.10.2. DHA will share the revocation/suspension decision with the respective authorities as
6.10.3. DHA shall review applications from applicants with a revoked professional license after
a. Following two (2) years, re-applying will be subject to MPC approval and fulfilment of the
applicable.
6.11. CPD:
6.11.1. HPs with active license(s) are obligated to complete the target CPD requirements as per
the PQR.
a. If there are multiple categories under the HP license, the target CPD points shall be
combined.
6.11.2. Target CPD points requirements shall not be less than 70% in the area of the professional
6.11.3. Only 30% of the total target CPD points can be gained through online programs.
6.11.4. If the HP overachieves their target CPD points, they are eligible to carry forward up to 10
6.11.5. If the HP underachieves their target CPD points, then the remaining CPD points must be
6.11.6. HP who do not meet the yearly CPD points or have a CPD action pending will only be able
a. Update CPD.
b. Payment of Fines.
6.11.7. The following are not considered activities for target CPD:
6.11.8. CPD points will be accepted nationally and internationally providing they are recognized
6.11.9. Claiming fraudulent CPD will result in disciplinary actions decided by the MPC.
7. References
7.1. Cabinet Decision no. (40) of 2019 concerning UAE Federal Law concerning Medical Liability.
7.2. Federal Law no. (5) of 2019 concerning the practice of the human medicine profession and its
amendments.
7.3. Federal Law No. (5) Of 1984 Concerning practice of Non-physicians and Pharmacists health
professions.
7.4. Federal Law no. (7) Of 1975 Concerning the Practice of Human Medicine.
7.5. Cabinet Decision no. (20) of 2017 concerning Unified Healthcare Professional Qualification
OR
6. Log book with evidence of completion of at least 300 cases as first or only
Technician
Medicine
Consultant 4
No previous disciplinary actions during Good Standing I hereby certify that no disciplinary proceedings / actions were initiated by the Dubai
the last 10 years Health Authority, against the practitioner listed above nor any proceeding is presently
contemplated.
Warning letter or Notice letter during Good Standing I hereby certify that no disciplinary proceedings / actions were initiated by the Dubai
the last 10 years (not during the last 2 Health Authority, against the practitioner listed above nor any proceeding is presently
years) contemplated.
Notice letter (during last 2 years) Good Standing I further certify that the above mentioned practitioner was issued a Notice letter on -----
----------. However, no current disciplinary proceedings / actions are initiated by the
Dubai Health Authority, against the practitioner listed above.
Suspended during the last 10 years (not Good Standing I hereby certify the professional license of the practitioner was suspended for ------
during the last 2 years) months from ------------- till -------------,
and no current disciplinary proceedings / actions are initiated by the Dubai Health
Authority, against the practitioner listed above.
Revoked during the last 10 years (not Good Standing License was revoked in --------- based on Medical Practice Committee decision / Appeal
during the last 2 years) and license Committee then reinstated in -------------; and no current disciplinary proceedings /
reinstated by the concerned committee actions are initiated by the Dubai Health Authority, against the practitioner listed above.
PSV Result
Records not available/ Facility
Not Affiliated/ Non cooperative/ could not be located/
Not genuine
accredited No response Ceased operation/ Unable to
verify due to situation in country
Document
To be forwarded to To be forwarded to the Grant one year to obtain a Grant one year to obtain a positive
Qualification
To be forwarded to NA Grant one year to obtain a Accept the report (If licensed by
the MPC positive re-verification** DHA more than 10 years)
License
crosscheck
Negative
records/
* Only for Sterilization Technicians, DHA may accept report if details are genuine and a verified registration from that same country was provided along with any other evidence
proving completion of training.
** The HP must complete the undertaking letter provided by the HLD. In case the result remained as UTV, rely on attestations.
o Qualification: Failure to verify the document post one year, the professional requires providing recognition by the Government of the issuing authority or attestation/
equivalency from Ministry of Education- Higher education UAE. Otherwise, the license shall be suspended precautionary.
o License :Failure to verify the document post one year, the professional requires providing additional documents which will be subject to DHA review and approval
(such as : Proof from correct Regulatory Authority /governing body indicating that HP was authorized and licensed to practice at that time).
Experience: Failure to verify the document post one year, the professional requires providing additional documents which will be subject to DHA review and
approval (e.g. Proof from related Regulatory Authority indicating that facility was existing during mentioned period, Bank statement, Employment contract.