Three approvals, not one: that is what opening a private clinic in Qatar takes. The company needs an active clinic code on its commercial registration. The clinic needs a health facility licence from the Ministry of Public Health. And every practitioner needs a Qatar practice licence. The Ministry assesses the clinic before the commercial permit is issued, and a licensed medical director must be in post before work starts.
Who licenses private clinics
The Ministry of Public Health, for the facility. Open any clinic code on the Single Window and the approving entity shown is its Department of Healthcare Facilities Licenses. Staff are another file. Each practitioner holds a practice licence from the same Ministry, and the duties of facilities and medical directors come from circulars of its Department of Healthcare Professions.
What you open decides the law. A doctor’s own clinic (no patient stays the night) comes under Law No. 2 of 1983 on medicine and dentistry and Resolution No. 9 of 1987 on private clinics. A short-stay centre or a hospital is another matter. Law No. 11 of 1982 calls any place set up to examine, treat or nurse patients, paid or free, a “medical treatment institution”; the Ministry’s Permanent Licensing Committee licenses those.
| Facility | Main text | Minimum set by the text |
|---|---|---|
| Private clinic of a doctor | Law No. 2 of 1983; Resolution No. 9 of 1987 | Two waiting rooms and an examination room; at least one licensed nurse |
| Short-stay centre | Law No. 11 of 1982; Decision No. 10 of 2002 | At least 10 beds |
| Specialised hospital | Law No. 11 of 1982; Decision No. 10 of 2002 | At least 20 beds per specialty |
| General hospital | Law No. 11 of 1982; Decision No. 10 of 2002 | At least 50 beds, with internal medicine, general surgery and anaesthesia, paediatrics, obstetrics and gynaecology |
The facility licence
Code 862019, “Other specialised medical clinics”, shows how it runs. First an “Initial Assessment” by the Ministry of Public Health (the Single Window estimates 60 days), then the commercial permit. Each time the permit comes up for renewal, the health facility licence certificate is renewed before it. CR fee: QAR 500. “Medical Clinic” location: QAR 500.
Under Law No. 11 of 1982, a medical treatment institution’s licence is good for a year and is renewed on request, provided every original condition still holds. It is personal: only the committee can approve passing it on. Move the facility, rebuild it, or stop work for more than six months, and it is cancelled. Before opening, the facility issues internal rules naming its director, doctors and nurses (they have no effect until the Ministry approves them) and puts up a price list the Ministry has approved.
Professional licences for staff
No one in Qatar may advise, examine, treat or operate on patients, or practise medicine or dentistry in any other way, without a licence from the competent authority. MOPH’s circular to private facilities adds to this. Without a permanent licence, a temporary licence or an official training letter for that facility, a practitioner does not start. Moving a licence to a new workplace? That needs approval first.
Medical director
The owner names one before the facility opens and reports the name to the Ministry. A doctor with a Qatar licence to practise medicine who still practises; in a specialised dental facility, a dentist.
If the director leaves
The Ministry hears within two weeks, a temporary director steps in, and a new one is appointed within 60 days. No director at all, and the facility closes.
Doctor opening a clinic
The 1983 law asks for five years in a hospital or treatment institution first (three for a dentist). One clinic per doctor, no more.
Nurses
At least one nurse licensed by the Permanent Licensing Committee in every clinic. With beds, one nurse for every five beds is the floor.
Licensing of individual doctors, nurses and allied health staff is between each practitioner and the Ministry of Public Health. It stays outside the facility file, and we do not advise on it.
Premises rules for a private clinic
Resolution No. 9 of 1987, still in force and amended most recently in 2013, sets what a private clinic must have before a doctor may work in it. When the clinic opens, the Permanent Licensing Committee approves the site.
Location
Not linked, directly or indirectly, to any home. Ground or first floor; higher only where working lifts serve it.
Rooms
Two waiting rooms of 12 m² or more, one for women and one for men, besides the examination room. Windows screened. A suitable toilet. And in every room, good light, ventilation and air conditioning.
Equipment and records
You will need what the resolution lists for a general practice, an examination couch, oxygen and sterilising equipment among it. You also keep a register of visits, and patient files for five years.
Limits
You may hold medicines for first aid, but you may not store or sell more than that. You may not keep a patient overnight without a private hospital licence, or operate under general or local anaesthesia without a permit.
The Single Window then adds its general location rules. A title deed or lease, a building completion certificate, and, for a site of 250 m² or more, a Civil Defence certificate. Nothing about the clinic may be changed without written permission.
Company setup for a clinic
The clinic’s company goes through the Single Window like any other, with the clinic activity on its CR. The activity pages we checked list foreigners among those allowed. So does MOCI’s foreign-ownership guide, for the clinic and dental centre codes. Law No. 1 of 2019 permits up to 100% foreign ownership, with an application above 49%.
Steps in order
- Decide what you are opening
Clinic, medical centre or hospital. The law, and with it the count of doctors, nurses and beds, follows from that choice.
- Check the team’s licences
The director and each practitioner should hold a Qatar practice licence for this facility, or be able to get one before the clinic opens.
- Form the company
Trade name first, then the company, on an active clinic code, once a lawyer has checked the ownership split.
- Prepare the premises
Measure the site against the clinic rules and the Single Window’s location rules. Sign the lease after that, not before.
- MOPH assessment
Ask the Ministry for its initial assessment; the commercial permit comes after it. For code 862019 the Single Window estimates 60 days.
- Open with everything in place
Facility licence and permit issued, director appointed and the Ministry told, every practitioner licensed, copies of the licences displayed in a prominent place.
One more law if you will take patients under mandatory health insurance: Law No. 22 of 2021. Anyone working in that scheme is entered in the Ministry’s register first, and an insurer that signs with an unregistered private facility is fined.
How we help
We help you pick an active clinic code and register the company. Before you sign for a site we test it against the published clinic rules, and we prepare the company papers the Ministry of Public Health asks for. We guide you on the order of steps; each decision stays with the two ministries, Public Health and Commerce and Industry.
