Health reference

Only a doctor registered with the General Medical Council (GMC), or the appropriate regulatory body if outside the UK can complete a health reference.

The referee must sign and date the form on the understanding that it is illegal for them to provide a false reference. The referee must either have been your registered medical practitioner for at least three years or have examined your medical records for this period and cannot be related to you. A referee who cannot provide a reference on either basis may do so after physically examining you.

Important points:

• The health reference must be completed on a HPC health reference form.
• References should be signed no more than six months before the submission of your application.
• Referees may charge a fee for completing your health reference form. Any costs incurred will have to be met by you.
• Referees must confirm their status as a registered medical practitioner on the form and provide their practice address. All references must be completed by the referee, returned to you and forwarded with your application form to us. They must have the original signature of the referee. We cannot accept faxed, photocopied or emailed copies of reference forms.
• We do not need a consent letter from you for a registered medical practitioner to release information. When you give your referee the health reference form you are giving your consent for them to complete this document.
• We cannot accept references sent directly to us by your registered medical practitioner.
• Please remember if you provide fraudulent references you may be prosecuted.

After you’ve obtained your health reference
When your doctor has completed your health reference, it should be returned to you. Keep this with your character reference and send it in to us with the rest of your application.

If your doctor has provided us with information about your health that may affect your practice, this does not necessarily mean we will not register you. Instead, we will consider the information provided to decide whether we need to ask a registration panel to consider your application.

If your doctor will not sign your reference
Your doctor may not be able to sign your reference. If so, you can ask another doctor who has access to your medical records from the last three years to complete your health reference.

If your medical records are not available then you can ask a doctor to undertake a medical examination and complete your health reference on this basis.

We have published a detailed document called ‘Information about the health reference’. This has been written for people who have more questions about the health reference, and it contains information for applicants and for doctors. You may find this document useful if you have a health condition, if you are disabled or if your doctor has asked you questions about the health reference. The document is available on our website at: www.hpc-uk.org/publications