How to check a doctor or clinic is licensed in the UAE

Search the practitioner’s name in the register of the authority that licensed them. Each emirate’s health authority keeps its own.

How do you check a doctor’s licence in Dubai?

Search the Dubai Medical Registry on the Dubai Health Authority (DHA) Sheryan system at services.dha.gov.ae.¹ It has one search for professionals and one for facilities, with filters for licence type, category, specialty, language, area, facility, nationality and gender.¹

Gulf News reported in June 2022, from a DHA awareness campaign, that a name search shows the professional’s licence, the category they are licensed under (physician, dentist, nurse or midwife, for example) and their work history in Dubai.² The same report said you can check a professional’s DHA licence card, and that a facility’s DHA licence is displayed at the reception or entrance.²

Gulf News also reported that DHA licenses all health facilities in Dubai, including free zones.² Dubai Healthcare City says all medical complaints in its free zone are managed by DHA.³

Search the doctor’s full name before your appointment and check that the category and specialty shown fit the treatment you are booked for.

How do you check a doctor’s licence in Abu Dhabi?

Use the Department of Health Abu Dhabi (DoH) service Find A Medical Professional on the TAMM government portal.⁴

The DoH call centre number is 800555.⁵

Search the TAMM service by name, and call 800555 if you cannot find the person you are booked to see.

How do you check a licence in the northern emirates?

Search the Ministry of Health and Prevention (MOHAP) medical professionals directory. Its entries show the professional’s name, category, specialty, nationality, gender and licence status, such as “Active”.⁶

MOHAP handles complaints about the private facilities it licenses in Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah.⁷ Some facilities in Sharjah are licensed by the Sharjah Health Authority (SHA) instead, which takes complaints about the facilities it licenses.⁸

Ask the clinic which authority issued its licence, then search that authority’s register.

What will a register not tell you?

A register shows licence details and status. In Dubai, disciplinary decisions may be shared with regulators and employers.

DHA’s licensing manual lets DHA share licensing and disciplinary information, including suspensions and revocations, with other regulators in the UAE and abroad.⁹ DHA may also disclose disciplinary findings, suspensions and revocations to a facility where the professional works or wants to work.⁹ The manual does not provide for publishing them to patients.⁹

When DoH announced on 14 October 2026 that it had revoked one physician’s licence and suspended another over controlled medication breaches, it did not name either doctor.¹⁰

If you want to know about a doctor’s disciplinary record, ask the authority that licenses them.

Which job titles should make you look again?

Titles that do not match a licence category. DHA’s standard for non-surgical cosmetic procedures, in force from 18 February 2025, says professionals must not use names or specialty titles that differ from their DHA licence, such as “Cosmetic Specialist or Consultant”, “Aesthetician”, “Cosmetologist”, “Anti-Aging Specialist or Consultant” and “Cosmetic or Beauty Expert”.¹¹

The DoH non-surgical cosmetics standard, effective January 2025, says titles such as “cosmetic specialist or consultant”, “cosmetologist” and “anti-aging specialist or consultant” are not recognised and cannot be used.¹² In Abu Dhabi, aestheticians (beauty therapists) may carry out certain non-surgical cosmetic procedures under the supervision of a licensed and privileged consultant or specialist physician.¹²

Khaleej Times reported on 14 August 2025 that Dubai Police, working with DHA, arrested three women for running an illegal clinic from a residential apartment.¹³

If someone uses one of these titles, search their name in the register and compare the title with the category shown.

What should a clinic’s social media account show you?

In Dubai, the clinic’s medical advertisement licence number. DHA’s social media advertising standard, in force from 3 October 2022, says a health facility’s official account must state the medical advertisement licence number issued by MOHAP.¹⁴

The same standard bans claims such as “safest”, “assured success”, “100%” and “immediate results”.¹⁴ Anyone shown in a post must have given documented consent.¹⁴ Before-and-after pictures must be of the same person with no photo editing, and must carry the statement “there is no guarantee that the result will be the same, as it might vary from one individual to another”.¹⁴ Filming or live streaming a patient during surgery under general anaesthesia for promotion is not allowed.¹⁴

Look for the advertisement licence number on the clinic’s account before you book through it.

What happens to someone who treats you without a licence?

They face imprisonment, a fine of AED 200,000 to AED 2,000,000, or both, under Federal Law No. 5 of 2019.¹⁵ The same penalty applies to anyone who gets a licence with false data or documents, and to an unlicensed person who uses signs, boards or publications that make the public believe they may practise.¹⁵

If you cannot find a practitioner or clinic in any register, report it to the health authority for that emirate. The where to complain tool tells you which one.

The small print

The penalty is in Article 25(1) of Federal Law No. 5 of 2019. Under Article 25(2), a person convicted of obtaining a licence with false data loses the licence and is struck off the register of physicians from the date of the final judgment.¹⁵

DHA’s licensing manual covers sharing with regulators in clause 24.5 and disclosure to current or prospective employers in clause 24.6. Clause 19.6 says disciplinary actions recorded in a Good Standing Certificate stay on record permanently and may be disclosed to authorities, licensing bodies or employers.⁹

The banned titles are in clause 7.2 of the DHA cosmetic standard and clause 4.1.2.1 of the DoH standard. The DoH clause says the titles are not recognised under the UAE unified Professional Qualifications Requirements.^11,12 The advertising rules are clauses 5.2, 6.10, 6.11, 9.6 and 9.7 of the DHA social media standard.¹⁴

The Gulf News description of the Dubai Medical Registry dates from June 2022. The registry’s search screens may have changed since.²