Qatar Licensing Exams for Health Professionals

Medical and health education in Qatar

Qatar trains its own doctors in only a small number of programmes: the MD at QU Health (Qatar University) and the Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar MD, which follows a US-style pre-medical plus four-year medical structure. Teaching is in English. A one-year internship (foundation year) follows, largely in Hamad Medical Corporation hospitals. Nursing, pharmacy and other health programmes at QU Health and the College of the North Atlantic-Qatar are typically bachelor's or diploma level; pharmacy is a PharmD, and there is no large dentistry school, so many dentists are trained abroad.

Programmes are approved through the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, while licensing sits with the Ministry of Public Health. A Qatari degree does not remove the licensing step, but MoPH has set out reduced experience requirements for recent QU Health graduates. Always confirm current rules with the Department of Healthcare Professions.

Why Qatar is the easiest Gulf exam to plan for

Most Gulf regulators publish little about the exam. DHP publishes a blueprint and reference list for each profession group, states the question count, time and cut score, and uses the same delivery partner for all of them. That makes preparation more predictable than in neighbouring states, where format changes by title or by emirate. The trade-off is that the exam is demanding by design: a fixed 150 items in 3 hours means about 72 seconds per question.

Who needs a licensing exam in Qatar

Applicants who are not exempt must pass the DHP qualifying exam for their profession and scope before DHP issues a licence. Exemption is based on holding a recognised qualification or certificate, and the list of exempting certificates is set in a DHP circular (DHP 19 of 2025). If you are unsure, read that circular first. It can save you an exam.

The exam sits inside licensing, not graduation. Check with DHP whether your route, local or foreign-trained, is covered by an exemption before you register.

Specialist physicians sit one of 34 specialty exams. If your scope is not listed, DHP assesses it case by case.

Cut scores by profession

A low cut score does not make an exam easy. The figure says little about how hard the questions are, so treat it as the target and not as permission to under-prepare.

Doctors

General practitioners sit the GP exam at 60%. Specialists sit one of 34 specialty exams at 65%, with Sports Medicine at 55%. Each has its own blueprint: the physicians blueprint and reference list and the specialty physician blueprint. Because the blueprints name reference texts, you can build a study plan straight from the official list rather than guessing.

Nurses and midwives

Registered general nurses and registered midwives share one published document, the nursing and midwifery blueprint and reference list. Both exams use a 50% cut score. They are separate exams with separate content, so a nurse-midwife who needs both licences should plan for both.

Pharmacists

The pharmacist exam has a 60% cut score and a published document, the pharmacist blueprint. The cut score is ten points above the nursing exams, so leave more margin in your mock results.

Dentists

General dentists sit a 150-question exam at 60%; the national general dental blueprint sets out the content. There are also eight dental specialty exams with a 65% cut score, covered in the dental specialty blueprint.

Physiotherapists and other allied health

Physiotherapists sit a 150-question exam at 50%. They share an allied health blueprint with paramedics, radiographers and laboratory staff, all at 50%: the AHP blueprint. If you are an allied health professional outside those titles, check with DHP whether an exam applies.

Preparing for a fixed 150-question paper

Because every DHP exam has the same shape, preparation can follow one method whatever your profession.

• Start from the blueprint. Split your study weeks in proportion to the domain weights it lists, not to what you find most interesting.
• Read the named references. The reference lists tell you which texts the item writers worked from. Summaries and forum notes do not.
• Practise the pace. 150 questions in 180 minutes leaves 72 seconds per item. Do timed blocks of 50 questions in 60 minutes first, then full 3-hour runs.
• Treat five attempts as a ceiling. Each failure costs weeks and a fee, and a pattern of failures can affect your employer's plans.

Specialists have a further decision. With 34 specialty exams on the list, pick the one that matches the scope on your job offer and read that blueprint, not the general physician one.

Attempts, language and recognition

• Attempts: up to five consecutive attempts per DHP rules. After that, ask DHP what is allowed.
• Language: the exams are in English. The published blueprints and references are in English too.
• Recognition: via the DHP exempting-certificates circular and primary source verification of your degree and experience. No treaty recognition between Gulf states applies.
• Delivery: Prometric centres, in Qatar and in other countries.

Typical steps

1. Check exemption. Read the DHP circular on exempting certificates for your profession.
2. Apply to DHP for evaluation and attach your verified documents.
3. Get your eligibility. DHP confirms which exam applies to your scope.
4. Study from the blueprint. Use the published reference list as the spine of your plan.
5. Book at Prometric and sit the 3-hour exam.
6. Licence issue. A pass leads to licensing, subject to your employer and verification.

One more practical point: because all DHP exams share a delivery partner and a booking system, you can compare mock results across professions without adjusting for format. What differs is only content and the cut score, so use the blueprint for your own profession and ignore pass-mark folklore from other roles.

Last reviewed October 2026