The Specialist Register
What is the Specialist Register?
The Specialist Register is a list of doctors who are eligible to take up appointment in any fixed term, honorary or substantive consultant post in the NHS excluding foundation trusts.
If a doctor is on the Specialist Register it will say so as part of their status on the medical register.
Doctors can practice in a specialty not shown on their Specialist Register entry. In most cases, they must be on the Specialist Register in at least one specialty to practise as a consultant in any of the UK health services.
In order to be granted specialist or GP registration doctors must hold full registration with a licence to practise at the point specialist/GP registration is awarded.
Apply to join the Specialist Register
We are an organization focused on managing the procedures and producing solutions for medical professionals who want to live and work in the UK. As all parties know, there is a huge gap in the number of practicing medical doctors in the UK. To fill this gap, GMC and NHS require qualified doctors to come to the UK and be able to practice medicine legally. International recruitment has been, and will remain, an essential pipeline for medical staffing for the NHS. The NHS in the UK is reaching crisis point, there is currently a 50,000 plus shortage of GP’s and hospital doctors.
If you have a specialist medical qualification, training or experience and you want to work as a consultant
in a UK health service you need to apply to join the Specialist Register.
How you apply depends on things like when and where you completed your specialist medical training or experience.
More about the Specialist Register
GMC introduced the Specialist Register on 1 January 1997. Since then doctors must be on the Specialist Register in order to take up appointment to any post as a consultant in the National Health Service (NHS).
Some doctors on the Specialist Register will have completed a period of formal specialist training in the UK. GMC certify this training now but it was previously certified by the Postgraduate Medical Education and Training Board (2005–10) and the Specialist Training Authority (1996–2005).
Some doctors will have been found eligible by the GMC, following an assessment of the specialist training undertaken or the specialist qualifications awarded in the UK or elsewhere. During the assessment processes, just the specialist training program will be assessed, not the individual doctors’ ability.
Entry onto the Specialist Register is a requirement for appointment as a consultant in the NHS.
Specialist or GP applications
There are different types of registration applications available to specialists and general practitioners (GPs) based on their knowledge, skills and experience. Doctors who get their specialist qualifications awarded other than the UK only need to apply for specialist registration, if they want to practice as substantive, honorary or fixed term consultant in the UK health services. Doctors only need to apply for GP registration, if they want to practice as a GP in the UK health services.
