DHP General Practitioner Licensing Exam
Most internationally trained doctors entering Qatar are licensed as General Practitioners, not as specialists. The DHP publishes an official content blueprint for this examination, and that blueprint is set out below. Preparation resources are listed at the end of this page.
Exam Specification
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Regulator | Department of Healthcare Professions |
| Vendor and sponsor code | Prometric — SCHQ2 |
| Questions | 150 MCQs |
| Duration | 3 hours |
| Cut score | 60% |
Confirmed on the DHP's own Qualifying Examination page, which lists the General Practitioner examination as the first of 16 healthcare practitioner categories.
Content Blueprint
Official blueprint — published in the DHP "Physicians — Blueprint and Reference" document.
| Domain | Items | Weighting |
|---|---|---|
| Medicine | 47 | 31.3% |
| Pediatrics | 37 | 24.7% |
| Obstetrics & Gynaecology | 36 | 24.0% |
| Surgery | 30 | 20.0% |
| Total | 150 | 100% |
This blueprint covers the General Practitioner exam only. The specialist examinations have their own blueprints in the DHP “Specialty Physician Exams — Qualifying Examination Blueprint” document.
DHP pass-mark tiers across the professions it regulates: 60% for General Practitioner, General Dentist and Pharmacist; 65% for the 29 medical specialist examinations; 50% for nursing and allied health.
Eligibility
| Applicant | Experience required |
|---|---|
| Overseas General Practitioner | 5 years |
| Qatari, or offspring of a Qatari woman — private sector | 2 years |
| Qatari, or offspring of a Qatari woman — governmental sector | Exempted |
Exams That Exempt You
Circular DHP/2025/19, dated 26 November 2025, lists the qualifying exams that exempt a candidate from the Prometric qualifying exam for licensing in Qatar.
For physicians seeking General Practitioner licensure:
- International Foundation of Medicine (IFOM) Clinical Science Exam (CSE)
- United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) Step 2
- Professional and Linguistic Assessments Board (PLAB) Part 1
- Medical Council of Canada Qualifying Examination (MCCQE) Part 1
- Australian Medical Council (AMC) Multiple Choice Question (MCQ)
- MRCGP Part 1 Applied Knowledge Test (AKT)
- Pre-Registration Examination System (PRES — MCQ) Part 2
The DHP Guidelines add a minimum IFOM CSE score of 60.
These exemptions apply to General Practitioners only. There is no specialist exemption list — a Category 3 specialist sits the examination regardless of what else they hold.
From 1 January 2026, no exempting exam is accepted without a verification report. The circular states that any exam must be verified by a verification company, and that no exam will be accepted without a verification report after that date. Queries: DHPRegistration@moph.gov.qa
Attempts, Validity & Renewal
| Rule | Details |
|---|---|
| Attempts — qualifying examination | 5 consecutive times, whatever the gap between each attempt |
| Attempts — Specialty | 3 trials |
| Equivalent exam result validity | As stated on the certificate; where none is stated, 3 years |
| Medical Licence | Renewed every 2 years |
| Temporary Licence | 6 months, non-renewable |
| Preliminary Evaluation | 6 months |
The 5-attempt rule is published on the DHP's own Qualifying Examination page and applies to the qualifying examination categories. The 3-trial rule applies to the specialty category and comes from the DHP Guidelines.
Fees
| Item | Fee |
|---|---|
| Prometric exam fee | $244 USD from 1 January 2026 (was $238 from 19 January 2024) |
| Primary source verification | Not published |
| DHP portal evaluation | Not published |
| Licence issuance | Not published |
What we offer
Start preparing for SMLE course — a standardized question bank for general practitioners.
You can also get access to USMLE Step 2 question bank.