GMC - General Medical Council

• Why Register
• Who can register
• Full Registration
• Provisional Registration
• Limited Registration
• Specialist Registration
• Temporary Full Registration
• How to Register
• Timescale for processing Applications
• Working as a General Pranctitioner in the UK

Doctors must be registered with the GMC to practise medicine in the UK. To register, they must have a recognised medical qualification. If you would like assistance with gaining GMC Registration then please contact us.

The medical register shows who is properly qualified to practise medicine in the UK and currently contains about 200,000 doctors.

Doctors need to be registered with the GMC if they wish to practise medicine in the UK.

The type of work that requires doctors to be registered includes:

• working in the National Health Service (NHS)
• prescribing drugs, the sale of which is restricted by law
• signing medical certificates required for statutory purposes (death certificates, etc.)

Doctors wishing to work in private practice in the UK will also need to register with the GMC because the major private health hospitals and insurers only recognise registered doctors.

Patients trust doctors with their lives and well-being. They need to have confidence that doctors are competent in their field and abide by high ethical standards. The GMC’s duty is to protect this public interest. By keeping up-to-date registers of qualified doctors, the GMC aim to ensure that all registered doctors maintain a standard of service which the public and the medical profession expect of them. The standards of service are set out in the GMC’s publication Good Medical Practice.

The process for gaining registration generally depends on the country where you obtained your primary medical qualification and your nationality.

There are four main groups of doctors for the purposes of registration. The registration processes are different for each group and you will be advised by the GMC:

• doctors qualifying from a UK medical school are eligible for provisional and full registration
• doctors qualifying in another EEA Member State and who are nationals of an EEA Member State (or non-EEA nationals with European Community (EC) rights) are eligible for full registration. They are also eligible to apply for provisional registration if their medical education includes a period of postgraduate clinical training (sometimes referred to as internship training). The EEA includes the following countries: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Republic of Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain and Sweden. Since 1 June 2002, doctors qualifying in Switzerland and who are EEA nationals (or non - EEA nationals with EC rights) or Swiss nationals are also eligible for full registration. This also applies to Swiss nationals who have qualified in another EEA Member State.
• doctors qualifying in the following countries: Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia (if the degrees awarded by the University of Malaya are granted on or before 31 December 1989), New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa and the West Indies may be eligible for provisional and full registration.
• doctors who qualify in other countries not listed above may be eligible for limited and full registration. These include non-EEA nationals who do not benefit under EC law who have qualified in another EEA Member State.
• EEA nationals (and non-EEA nationals with EC rights) who qualify in other countries not listed above may be eligible for provisional or full registration if they have practised medicine in another EEA Member State.

Doctors need full registration for unsupervised medical practice in the NHS or private practice in the UK. They may also need specialist registration if they wish to take up a consultant post (other than a locum consultant post) within the NHS.

Provisional registration allows newly qualified doctors to undertake the general clinical training needed for full registration. A doctor who is provisionally registered is entitled to work only in resident junior house officer posts in hospitals or institutions that are approved for the purpose of pre-registration house officer (PRHO) service.

Doctors applying for limited registration will need to first check that they have a primary medical qualification that is recognised by the GMC. There are currently some 1,600 overseas primary medical qualifications accepted by the GMC for the purpose of limited registration. They include all the primary medical qualifications listed in the World Directory of Medical Schools published by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and anumber of others which are not listed in that directory.

Limited registration can be granted only for supervised employment in training posts in the NHS. The maximum period that a doctor can hold limited registration is five years. It cannot be granted for more than five years in total.

Generally speaking, doctors who hold, or have held limited registration may be granted full registration when they have demonstrated the knowledge, skills and attitudes equal to those which would be expected of a competent senior house officer (SHO) and satisfy the GMC of their good character. Most doctors do this by passing tests conducted by the International English Language Testing Service and the Professional and Linguistic Assessment Board (the PLAB test).

In certain cases EEA nationals – and others with EC rights – who hold an overseas qualification which is accepted only for the purpose of limited registration may apply for full or provisional registration directly (without having to undertake a period of limited registration first). In order to apply for full or provisional registration, the doctor’s qualification must have been accepted by another EEA member state for the purpose of practising medicine in that state; or he or she must have acquired medical experience or knowledge in another EEA member state. The grant of provisional or full registration is at the GMC's discretion.

The GMC also maintains the specialist register. Since 1 January 1997 it has been a legal requirement that, in order to take up a consultant post (other than a locum consultant appointment) in a medical or surgical specialty in the NHS a doctor must be included in the specialist register. The only exceptions are doctors who held a consultant post (other than a locum consultant post) in oral and maxillo-facial surgery in the NHS immediately before 1 January 1997.

It is not possible to hold specialist registration without also holding full, limited or temporary registration.

Although not a legal requirement, generally speaking, doctors wishing to work unsupervised in private practice in the UK will also need to hold specialist registration. This is because the major private health providers and insurance companies only recognise doctors whose names are included in the specialist register.

In certain cases, 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 to demonstrate a specialist procedure.

Call our helpline for further information about temporary full registration if you are an overseas qualified doctor or if you are an EEA national (or non-EEA national with EC rights) who has qualified in an EEA Member State.

Please see our opening section above.

We aim to complete the processing work to verify applications as quickly as possible. If we are not able to grant you registration within five working days of the date we received your application we will write to you (or email if you have given us an email address) to let you know what further information we need. Over our busy periods, January/February and July/August each year it can take us longer to process applications. It will help us greatly if you can submit your application together with all the paperwork as early as possible.

In some cases we may need to refer a case to the Registration Committee. If you are applying for limited registration, or to move from limited to full registration, you should apply well in advance of the date on which you wish to take up employment in the UK. We can accept applications for limited registration up to three months in advance of the date you wish to start work.

If you wish to work as a general practitioner (GP) in the UK - either as a principal, locum, deputy or assistant - you must be eligible to work in that capacity and hold full registration with the GMC. If you have been awarded a certificate for general practice, or of acquired rights, by another EEA member state or Switzerland, please contact us for further advice. If not, you should contact the Joint Committee on Postgraduate Training for General Practice (JCPTGP) for advice.