All Doctors, Dentists Pharmacists and Allied Health Professionals who
wish to practice in Gibraltar must first register with the Board.
Registration is not only required by law, but also is a pre-requisite by insurers of medical indemnity and therefore practice without registration can result in severe penalties, which may include imprisonment and civil damages.
Possession of registration with regulatory bodies from other countries (including the UK) is not sufficient for this purpose.
Doctors
All doctors working in Gibraltar are required to be registered with the Gibraltar Medical Registration Board (GMRB).
Registration with the GMRB is likely be approved in the following ways:
1. All doctors conducting 50% or more of their practice in Gibraltar are required to be registered with the UK’s General Medical Council (GMC) and hold a licence to practise (LtP) with the GMC.
2. All doctors with a UK primary qualification are required to be registered with the UK’s General Medical Council (GMC) and hold a licence to practise with the GMC.
There are three other groups that are specifically mentioned in the Regulations who may be approved (subject to certain other criteria, see below) for registration by the GMRB. Using the Regulations numbering, they are:-
3.(1A) Junior doctors who obtained their primary medical qualification outside the EEA and do not have a LtP with the GMC may be allowed to practise with limited registration, working for the Government of Gibraltar or Gibraltar Health Authority in a supervised and training role.
3.(1B) Doctors who on 1st April 2019 had been registered to practise in Gibraltar for a period of 13 years and are not eligible for registration with the GMC shall be entitled to practise whilst registered with the GMRB.
3.(1C) Doctors who carry out more than 50% of their medical practice outside Gibraltar, who qualified outside the UK and who are registered and in good standing with the EEA State in which they work may be entitled to practise within Gibraltar. The legislation specifically mentions for this group that they must practise within a defined scope agreed with their Responsible Officer but, in practice, this requirement extends to ALL doctors categorized as above (1, 2, 3.(1A), 3.(1B) and 3.(1C)).
Doctors who fall outside these groups will not be eligible for registration with the GMRB.
Dentists
Dental services in Gibraltar are provided by Registered Dental Practitioners who are either in salaried employment in the Gibraltar Health Authority or in private dental practice as self-employed. The Gibraltar Medical Registration Board is the registering body for Dentists and Dental specialists. The Board in general shadows the UK’s General Dental Council in matters of ethical policy and adopts its published guidance as its own framework of professional guidelines for registered dental practitioners registered with it.
Pharmacists
The Board in general shadows the UK’s General Pharmaceutical Council in matters of ethical policy and adopts its published guidance as its own framework of professional guidelines for registered medical practitioners registered with it. The Board has adopted the General Pharmaceutical Council’s guidelines, Standards of Conduct, Ethics and Performance (September 2010) as its own code for registered Pharmacists.
Allied Health Professionals (AHP)
The Government has also enacted laws regulating the professions and protecting the titles of a number of health professions and professionals (collectively known as Allied Health Professionals). The titles of professions are protected under law and under the law no one can practice the profession nor claim to provide the services of the profession unless that person is accordingly registered with the Gibraltar Medical Registration Board. Evidence of a current registration by the appropriate UK regulator must be submitted in order for Allied Health Professions to be registered by the Gibraltar Medical Registration Board.
Services provided by health professionals established in other European Union counties and the European Economic Area.
European regulations covering the mutual recognition of qualifications permit professionals holding qualifications in the appropriate profession to have these qualifications recognised and enable these professionals to practise their profession in Gibraltar without registration even if they are not based in Gibraltar but in another European Union country or a country in the European Economic Area. This is permitted provided they do so only on a temporary and occasional basis. These practitioners must however advise the MRB of the starting and ending dates of their period of the provision of services on each and every occasion. The MRB will review the occurrences of these services and if it considers that they are not temporary and occasional, the Board can prohibit further practice on this basis in Gibraltar and require registration with the MRB in accordance with the law to continue practising.