Working in healthcare in Qatar: your DHP licence, step by step

Who needs a licence

The Department of Healthcare Professions (DHP) at the Ministry of Public Health registers and licenses healthcare practitioners. It used to be the Qatar Council for Healthcare Practitioners, and many people still call it QCHP.

• Physicians, dentists, nurses, midwives, pharmacists and allied health professionals, from physiotherapists and radiographers to laboratory staff and paramedics, need a DHP licence to practise.
• DHP’s guidelines for physicians and pharmacists say that anyone who works in a healthcare facility without a licence will not be eligible for registration or licensing in Qatar.
• The pharmacists’ guidelines also say that work experience only counts if you held a registration or licence while you did it.

The steps, in order

You apply on the DHP portal. DHP’s applicant guide says that after you pay, the application goes to the employer that will hire you in Qatar, which approves it before DHP reviews it.

The newer pharmacists’ guidelines, from September 2025, say evaluation can now be requested without an employer, under circular 22 of 2024. Check on the portal whether that option is open to your profession.

• Primary source verification. A company approved by DHP checks your degrees, licences, experience and good standing with the bodies that issued them.
• The qualifying exam, unless you are exempt. You attach the pass certificate to your application.
• Evaluation. You upload your passport, CV, certificates with transcripts, experience certificates, licences, the verification report and your exam certificate. When it is approved, DHP issues a preliminary evaluation, which is valid for 6 months.
• Temporary licence. Once your evaluation is approved you can apply for one, with undertaking letters from you and the facility. It lasts up to 6 months and cannot be renewed. Without a Qatar ID you need a medical report and a police clearance from home, both attested by Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
• Licence. Apply before any temporary licence runs out, or you must apply for evaluation again. You need your Qatar ID, a police clearance from Qatar’s Ministry of Interior, a medical report from HMC, the Medical Commission or an approved private hospital (valid for 6 months), a valid CPR certificate, which your employer checks, and your good standing.
• Your Qatar ID should be sponsored by the employer. Women on a family sponsorship can use that Qatar ID with a letter of intent from the employer.

Primary source verification

• DHP approves three companies: Dataflow, Quadrabay (approved in 2025) and Approved Verification Services (AVS, approved on 3 September 2026). You apply to the company and pay it directly.
• Since 1 August 2025, DHP no longer accepts certificates of good standing by email or post. You submit a verification report for your good standing instead. Some older DHP guideline documents still describe posting or emailing them; the 2025 circular replaced that.
• From 1 January 2026, any exam you use to claim an exemption must be verified too.
• For the licence, DHP says the verification report replaces attestation of your certificates. Your work visa may still need attested certificates, so ask your employer.
• List every job in your CV in your first application. DHP’s guidelines for physicians and pharmacists say it will not consider an experience certificate in a later evaluation if it was missing from the first.
• If a report comes back negative or cannot be verified, DHP may call you for an interview, and can reject and blacklist the applicant. Proven fraud also brings disciplinary action.

The Prometric qualifying exam

Most exams have 150 multiple choice questions in 3 hours, taken on computer at Prometric test centres. The dietician exam has 160 questions in 3 hours 10 minutes, and Prometric offers it by remote testing too. DHP lists a test centre in Doha, at the Al Emadi Business Center on C Ring Road.

• Pass marks: 60% for general practitioners, general dentists and pharmacists; 50% for nursing, midwifery and most allied health exams; 65% for specialty physician and dentist exams, and 55% for sports medicine.
• The fee is USD 244 for bookings from 1 January 2026. Moving or cancelling costs USD 25 with 30 or more days’ notice and USD 40 with 5 to 29 days. With less than 5 days, if you miss it, or if you arrive more than 30 minutes late, you lose the full fee.
• Most exams allow five attempts, and DHP may allow one more with a clear justification. DHP’s physician guidelines allow three attempts at the specialty exams.
• A pass is valid for 3 years. An equivalent exam is valid for the period on its certificate, or 3 years if none is shown.
• DHP publishes a blueprint and reading list for each exam on its qualifying exam page.

Who is exempt from the exam

Circular 19 of 2025 says all healthcare practitioners must pass the Prometric exam. Circular 24 of 2025, from 30 December 2025, lists three exempt groups: Qataris, children of Qatari women, and graduates of universities and colleges in Qatar. It adds that exam policies apply according to each specialty.

Passing an accepted international exam also exempts you, as long as it is still valid and has been verified:

• General practitioners: the IFOM Clinical Science Exam with a score of at least 60, USMLE Step 2, PLAB Part 1, MCCQE Part 1, the AMC MCQ exam, the MRCGP Applied Knowledge Test, or the Irish PRES MCQ Part 2.
• General dentists: NJCE II, all parts of the NDEB exam in Canada, the Irish Dental Council exams, NZDREX, or the UK Overseas Registration Exam within the last 5 years. Graduates of accredited programmes registered with the Australian, Irish, New Zealand or UK dental boards are also exempt.
• Pharmacists: NAPLEX, PEBC, OSPAP, OPRA or CAOP.
• Nurses: NCLEX RN. DHP’s nursing guidelines say within the last five years.
• Dental hygienists: the NBDHE.
• Older DHP guidelines also exempt some senior or more qualified practitioners: specialist physicians with a Category 1 or 2 qualification, clinical nurse specialists, nurse educators and nurse practitioners, pharmacists with a relevant master’s degree, and, in the exam policy, nurses and allied health staff with a clinical master’s or PhD. The 2025 circulars do not repeat these exemptions. Ask DHP or your employer’s licensing team which applies to you before you book.

The experience you need

• Registered nurses with a bachelor’s degree or a diploma: 2 years of clinical experience after registering as a nurse. With an associate degree: 3 years. Online and distance learning nursing programmes are not accepted.
• Midwives: 3 years as a midwife after registering as one.
• Pharmacists: 2 years after graduating.
• Allied health therapists and technologists: usually 2 to 5 years, depending on the scope. Technicians: usually at least 2 years.
• General practitioners from overseas: a medical degree of at least 6 years from a university listed in the IMED FAIMER directory, where an internship can make up the length, and at least five years of experience, plus the exam.
• Specialist physicians are graded by their postgraduate qualification, and need 5 years of experience in total. Category 1 needs 1 year of experience after the qualification and Category 2 needs 2 years. Other qualifications need at least 3 years of structured training with a board exam, then 3 years of experience in government or training hospitals, and the DHP exam.
• A UK Royal College membership or fellowship with a CCST or its UK equivalent, and American Board certification, are in Category 1. DHP lists the qualifications for each country in its physician guidelines.
• Spouses and children of residents applying from inside Qatar follow separate experience rules, set in the December 2025 circular.
• Overseas physicians with less than the required experience are not eligible. Qataris and people already in Qatar on a family sponsorship can sometimes make up missing experience under supervision, and nurses and allied health staff with a Qatar ID can apply to train under supervision.

How long it takes

DHP’s service times, in working days, count from when your application is complete and your documents are verified:

• Evaluation: 25 for physicians and dentists, 15 for nurses, pharmacists and allied health.
• Temporary licence: 5.
• Licence: 15 for physicians and dentists, 10 for everyone else.
• Renewal: 7. Change of workplace: 10 for physicians and dentists, 7 for everyone else.
• Verification comes first. DHP’s target for the verification company is 10 working days, and Quadrabay quotes 20 business days for its standard package. Neelim, a licensing consultancy, says it takes 6 to 12 weeks. Start it as soon as you have an offer.

Costs, and who pays

• The Prometric exam costs USD 244.
• Verification companies charge their own fees. Quadrabay’s price list, attached to DHP’s circular, is QAR 1,100 for physicians and dentists and QAR 900 for nurses, pharmacists and allied health on its standard package, plus QAR 550 to verify good standing certificates. AVS publishes its fee schedule on its portal. Neelim puts Dataflow’s standard package at QAR 990 for nurses, pharmacists and allied health, and QAR 1,210 for physicians and dentists.
• DHP charges its own fees on the portal at several stages. We could not find them published.
• Ask your employer in writing which costs it pays: verification, the exam, DHP fees, the medical report and the CPR course.

Keeping your licence

• Renew online before your licence expires. The portal will not accept a renewal until you meet the CPD requirements.
• Physicians and dentists: 80 CPD credits every 2 years, at least 40 in each year, and at least 40 in Category 1, which is accredited group learning.
• Nurses, pharmacists and allied health, from 1 October 2026: 40 credits every 2 years, at least 20 in each year, and at least 20 in Category 1.
• Your 2 year CPD cycle starts on the date of your licence.
• You do not sit the exam again to renew.
• If you leave Qatar, DHP’s physician guidelines say current rules apply when you return after a year or more away, and after more than 5 years you need a new evaluation.
• Moving to another employer needs a change of workplace application.