No person may practice medicine in the UAE unless licensed by the health authority, and that rule covers the free zones as well as the mainland. Article 4 of Federal Law No. 5 of 2019 states it flatly. Practicing without a license carries a fine of AED 100,000 to AED 1,000,000 even where the person could have qualified, and imprisonment plus a fine of AED 200,000 to AED 2,000,000 where they could not.
Which register you check depends on where the clinic is, not where the doctor trained. Dubai licenses through the Dubai Health Authority’s Sheryan system, Abu Dhabi through the Department of Health, and the northern emirates through the Ministry of Health and Prevention. There is no single national lookup.
This guide covers what each authority publishes, what a valid license actually restricts a practitioner to, the two separate offenses in the law and why the difference matters to you, and what to do if you find a problem. If your issue is an outcome rather than a credential, filing a medical negligence complaint in the UAE is the route.
Which Authority Licensed the Clinic You Are Standing In
Federal Law No. 5 of 2019 defines the health authority as the Ministry or any federal or local government body in charge of health affairs, each within its own area of competence. In practice that means the emirate decides the register, so a Dubai clinic sits in Dubai’s system and an Abu Dhabi clinic in Abu Dhabi’s, regardless of where the physician qualified or previously worked.
| Where the facility is | Licensing authority | Where to look |
|---|---|---|
| Dubai | Dubai Health Authority (DHA) | The Sheryan portal, which carries separate Professionals, Facilities and Dubai Medical Registry sections |
| Abu Dhabi, Al Ain, Al Dhafra | Department of Health, Abu Dhabi (DoH) | DoH services, which separate Facilities and Professionals, plus its lists and tools |
| Sharjah, Ajman, RAK, Fujairah, Umm Al Quwain | Ministry of Health and Prevention (MOHAP) | MOHAP’s own licensing services |
| DHCC and other health free zones | The zone’s own regulator, within the federal law | The zone regulator’s register |
Article 2 settles the free-zone question that comes up constantly. The law applies to any person practicing or requesting to practice the profession inside the State, expressly including the free zones. A clinic in a health free zone is regulated, not exempt; what changes is which body holds the file.
Two Things to Check, Not One
The practitioner and the premises are licensed separately, and both matter. A properly licensed doctor working in an unlicensed place is committing an offense under Article 22, which prohibits practicing the profession in any unlicensed place except in cases set out in the Executive Regulations. Checking the doctor alone leaves that gap open.
What a License Actually Permits
A UAE medical license is not a general permission to treat. Article 22 prohibits a physician from practicing outside the scope of the license granted to him, except in an emergency to save someone’s life, and from performing any action requiring resources that are not available, again except in emergencies.
This is the part patients most often overlook. A license names a profession and a specialty, so the meaningful question is not whether the person holds a license but whether the license covers what they are proposing to do to you. A general practitioner offering a procedure that belongs to a specialty is the classic case, and it is a breach of Article 22 rather than a grey area.
Article 22 also bars a physician from selling medicines or samples to patients, from promoting a particular medicine or directing patients to a specific pharmacy, and from taking a percentage of the income of any pharmacy, laboratory, another physician or another facility for referring patients. A referral that comes with a strong steer toward one particular lab or pharmacy is worth noticing for that reason. The rules on obtaining medicines are covered in pharmacy and medication rules in the UAE.
The Two Offenses, and Why the Distinction Matters
The law separates people who could never have qualified from people who simply never got licensed, and it punishes them very differently.
| Conduct | Penalty | Article |
|---|---|---|
| Practicing without a license and without meeting the conditions to obtain one | Imprisonment and/or a fine of AED 200,000 to AED 2,000,000 | 25(1)(a) |
| Submitting incorrect data or documents, or using unlawful means, to obtain a license | Same range, plus revocation and removal from the register of physicians on final judgment | 25(1)(b) and 25(2) |
| Using signs, boards or publications that make the public believe an unlicensed person may practice | Same range as 25(1)(a) | 25(1)(c) |
| Practicing without a license even though the person meets the conditions to obtain one | Fine of AED 100,000 to AED 1,000,000 | 27 |
| Breaching the Article 22 prohibitions, including practicing in an unlicensed place | Fine of AED 20,000 to AED 1,000,000 | 26 |
Under both Article 25(3) and Article 27, the health authority may close the health facility administratively where the violator works solely there. That is a real consequence for patients mid-treatment, and it is one reason to check before a course of treatment rather than during it.
A License Can Also Be Live but Restricted
Article 28 lets the health authority impose disciplinary measures on a licensed physician: a written notice, a written warning, a fine of AED 1,000 to AED 1,000,000, temporary suspension of the license for up to one year, or revocation. A suspension is not the same as an absent record, so what you want from a register is current status, not merely the existence of an entry. Article 28(3) also requires the practitioner to be heard before a disciplinary penalty is imposed, unless they fail to attend after notice.
How to Run the Check
Ask for the practitioner’s full name as it appears on the license and the facility’s name, then look up each separately in the register for that emirate. Confirm the profession and specialty on the record match what you are being offered, and confirm the status is active rather than merely listed. The same verification matters for a remote consultation, where the facility needs a separate telehealth permission: see what is allowed in UAE telemedicine.
- Get the exact name. Licenses are issued in the name on the professional’s qualifications, which is not always the name on a business card or an appointment app.
- Identify the emirate of the facility, not of the doctor’s previous job or training. That fixes which register applies.
- Check the professional. In Dubai, the Sheryan portal’s Professionals section and the Dubai Medical Registry; in Abu Dhabi, DoH’s Professionals service.
- Check the facility separately. Both DHA and DoH publish facilities distinctly from professionals, which is the check that catches Article 22 breaches.
- Match the specialty to the procedure. The license names a scope. If the proposed treatment sits outside it, that is the question to ask before consenting.
- Look at the license expiry and status, not just the presence of a name.
- Keep a screenshot with the date. If anything later goes wrong, evidence of the position on the day you consented is far more useful than a recollection.
What Actually Happens
Expect friction rather than refusal. Reception staff are usually not asked this and may need to fetch the license number from an administrator, which takes a few minutes. A clinic that treats the request as routine is a mild positive signal; one that becomes evasive about a number it is legally required to hold is a stronger negative one. Asking at the point of booking rather than in the consulting room avoids doing it under pressure.
If the Check Fails
Do not proceed with treatment, and take the matter to the health authority that licenses the facility rather than to the police first. The authority holds the licensing file, the disciplinary power under Article 28 and the power to close a facility administratively.
Where treatment has already happened and you believe you were harmed, the licensing question and the negligence question travel together but on different tracks. The complaint route, the committee that assesses it and the deadline that closes the case are set out in the medical negligence complaint process. Abu Dhabi additionally runs a dedicated reporting platform through DoH.
There is an insurance dimension too. Treatment obtained from an unlicensed provider or outside a practitioner’s licensed scope is exactly the kind of claim an insurer declines, which is covered in appealing a rejected health insurance claim. Checking the license first is cheaper than arguing about the bill afterward.
Where This Guide Stops
Two honest limits. The federal law we quote here regulates the medical profession, meaning human medicine including dentistry; pharmacy, nursing and the other health professions sit under their own statutes with their own penalty scales, even though the same authorities license them. And the registers themselves change interface and naming from time to time, so the durable instruction is to start from the licensing authority for that emirate rather than from a bookmarked page or a third-party directory.
We were also unable to confirm from an official published source that any single federal lookup covers all seven emirates at once, which is why the table above splits the check by authority rather than pointing at one national tool. If you are comparing the systems themselves rather than checking a specific practitioner, public versus private healthcare in the UAE covers the wider landscape, and how a practitioner gets a UAE medical license covers the process from the professional’s side.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I check if a doctor is licensed in Dubai?
Look the practitioner up in the Dubai Health Authority’s Sheryan portal, which carries separate Professionals and Facilities sections along with the Dubai Medical Registry. Use the full name exactly as it appears on the license, and check the facility separately, because the doctor and the premises are licensed as two different things.
Is there one national register for all UAE doctors?
No. Licensing sits with the health authority competent for that emirate: DHA in Dubai, the Department of Health in Abu Dhabi, and the Ministry of Health and Prevention in the northern emirates, with health free zones regulated by their own bodies. Federal Law No. 5 of 2019 defines the health authority as each of these within its own area of competence.
What is the penalty for practicing medicine without a license in the UAE?
Article 25(1)(a) imposes imprisonment and/or a fine of AED 200,000 to AED 2,000,000 on a person practicing without a license and without meeting the conditions to obtain one. Article 27 imposes a fine of AED 100,000 to AED 1,000,000 on a person practicing without a license even where they do meet those conditions.
Do the rules apply to clinics in free zones?
Yes. Article 2 of Federal Law No. 5 of 2019 states that the law applies to any person practicing or requesting to practice the profession inside the State, including the free zones. A health free zone changes which regulator holds the licensing file, not whether a license is required.
Can a licensed doctor perform any treatment?
No. Article 22 prohibits a physician from practicing outside the scope of the license granted to him, except in an emergency to save someone’s life, and from performing any action requiring resources that are not available, again except in emergencies. Check that the specialty on the license covers the specific procedure being proposed.
What if the doctor is licensed but the clinic is not?
That is still an offense. Article 22 bars practicing the profession in any unlicensed place except in cases set out in the Executive Regulations, and Article 26 attaches a fine of AED 20,000 to AED 1,000,000 to Article 22 breaches. The health authority may also close the facility administratively where the violator works solely there.
Can a UAE medical license be suspended rather than revoked?
Yes. Under Article 28 the health authority may impose a written notice, a written warning, a fine of AED 1,000 to AED 1,000,000, temporary suspension of the license for up to one year, or revocation. This is why you should confirm the current status of a license rather than treating the existence of a register entry as sufficient.
Does a doctor have to tell me their license number?
A licensed practitioner and facility hold license details as a condition of operating, and reception can normally retrieve them. Article 25(1)(c) separately penalizes using signs, boards or publications that lead the public to believe an unlicensed person may practice, which is the provision aimed at misleading presentation. Evasiveness about a number the clinic is required to hold is worth treating as a warning sign.
Where do I report an unlicensed practitioner?
To the health authority that licenses facilities in that emirate, because it holds the licensing file, the disciplinary powers under Article 28 and the power to close a facility administratively. Abu Dhabi also operates a dedicated reporting platform through the Department of Health. Go to the authority before the police, as the licensing question is decided there.
Will my insurer pay for treatment by an unlicensed provider?
Treatment obtained outside a licensed facility or outside a practitioner’s licensed scope is a common ground for declining a claim, so verifying beforehand protects the bill as well as the outcome. If a claim has already been refused, the appeal route runs through the insurer first and then the relevant regulator.
Official Sources
- Federal Law No. (5) of 2019 Regulating the Practice of the Medical Profession
- Dubai Health Authority, Sheryan licensing portal (Professionals, Facilities, Dubai Medical Registry)
- Department of Health, Abu Dhabi (Facilities and Professionals services)
- Ministry of Health and Prevention, licensing services for the northern emirates
- Federal Decree-Law No. (4) of 2016 on Medical Liability
Information is current as of August 2026. Regulations and fees are subject to change. Verify requirements with official authorities before proceeding.
This guide is for informational purposes only. It is not medical or legal advice. UAE regulations are subject to change. Always verify current requirements with the relevant official authority before proceeding.
