How it works

How to check a doctor's registration status

Regulators publish registers that show whether a doctor may practise and whether restrictions apply. The register, not news coverage, is the authoritative current status.

• United Kingdom: the GMC's online medical register can be searched by GMC number or by name, and shows registration status and other information. Doctors practising in the UK must hold registration with a licence to practise.¹
• Australia: AHPRA's public register lists practitioners who are allowed to practise and publishes conditions that limit what some can do. Cancelled or prohibited practitioners, and those who have agreed not to practise, are listed separately.²
• California: the Medical Board of California's Licensee Profile search covers its licensees, and the board's License Alert app can notify users when a doctor is suspended, revoked or placed on probation. Osteopathic doctors are overseen by the Osteopathic Medical Board of California.³
• Ontario: the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario public register shows a doctor's registration status and summaries of discipline decisions, for example a revoked registration with its date.⁴
• In the United States many physicians, including some who have been disciplined, hold licences in more than one state, according to the FSMB, so a status shown by one state board may not cover the others.⁵

Sources

1. General Medical Council, The medical register (28 October 2026)
2. Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency, Registers of practitioners (28 October 2026)
3. Medical Board of California, License verification (28 October 2026)
4. College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, Public register entry, CPSO number 32129 (28 October 2026)
5. Federation of State Medical Boards, About physician discipline (28 October 2026)