Working as a Doctor in Dubai – The State Requirements

The demand for medical professionals in Dubai and the rest of UAE is quite high. As a doctor, you can find a job relatively easily in the emirate. The work conditions are usually quite good and you can earn around 75,000 EAD per month in the form of salary. However, you cannot practice your profession unless you meet certain requirements set by the local authorities. Find out whether you can meet them and how.

You need a government license in order to be able to practice your profession in Dubai. If you want to work in this emirate only and not anywhere else in UAE, you will need to obtain your document from the Dubai Department of Health and Medical Services (DOHMS). There are specific requirements for both general practitioners and specialists.

You must complete 50 hours of continued medical education per year (CME) in order to obtain and to keep your license. This means that once you are already on the job, you will still have to go through this training. The local authorities have taken care of this and doctors employed in both government and private healthcare institutions are entitled to 15 days of annual paid leave as well as an allowance of 800 Dhs to attend CME courses. Normally, participation in such programs is organized by employers, but if you have to arrange it on your own, you have to keep in mind that you have to attend a course in an educational institution approved for the purpose by Abu Dhabi’s General Authority for Health Services (GAHS).

Apart from having continued medical education courses each year, you will have to sit an examination in order to obtain a license for practicing your profession in Dubai. Before you are allowed to sit the exam, you must prove that you meet the minimum requirements for doctors in the emirate. All doctors must have an MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery) degree. Specialists must also have a master’s degree or an equivalent certification. A minimum of one year of internship in a teaching hospital or a minimum of two years of internship in a non-teaching one is required from license applicants. General practitioners need to prove that they have at least 2 years of clinical experience while specialists are required to have been working for at least 3 years after completing their internship.

The situation with dentists is similar to the one of general practitioners. They need a Bachelor Dentist degree, a one-year internship in a teaching hospital or a two-year internship in a non-teaching one as well as two years of clinical practice after the completion of their internship. These requirements must be met, so that dentists are allowed to sit the examination required for obtaining a license to practice in Dubai.

You have to discuss all these requirements with your potential employer first. They should help you with arranging the documentation, the required training and the sitting of the exam. All documents you need to provide have to be attested by the UAE embassy in your country of residence. In addition, you have to have their Arabic translation attested by the Dubai authorities.