How to search the Medical Council of Hong Kong's list of registered doctors: checking a doctor's registration number and specialty
In the ‘List of Registered Medical Practitioners’ on the Medical Council of Hong Kong website, you can search for a doctor by Chinese or English name or by registration number. Registered doctors on the General Register are qualified to practise in Hong Kong; limited-registration and special-registration doctors may practise only at their specified institutions, and all registered doctors must hold a valid practising certificate; whether a doctor is a specialist, and in which specialty, is shown on the Specialist Register, where for example the specialty code for Cardiology is S13.
How do I check, step by step?
First step: go to the ‘List of Registered Medical Practitioners’ on the Medical Council website and use ‘Search for Registered Medical Practitioners’ to enter the doctor's Chinese or English name; doctors with the same name are distinguished by registration number.
Second step: look at the registration category. The General Register is divided into full registration, provisional registration, limited registration, temporary registration and special registration; the online lists show full, provisional, limited and special registration, and the lists for limited and special registration also show each doctor's specified institution.
Third step: look at the specialty. The Specialist Register lists doctors by specialty, and a doctor's record shows the specialist registration number and the specialty. A doctor may call himself or herself a specialist only in the specialty in which he or she is registered.
Fourth step (if needed): look at disciplinary inquiries. The Medical Council website publishes, by year, the gazetted judgments of disciplinary inquiries held on or after 2 July 2008 (available in English only).
How do I read the information on the list?
| Field | How to read it |
|---|---|
| Registration number | Full registration numbers are M followed by digits; provisional registration numbers start with MP, limited registration with ML and special registration with MS; specialist registration numbers start with the specialty code, for example S13 for Cardiology |
| Name | For doctors with a Chinese name, the Chinese name is listed before the English name; you can search by Chinese name |
| Registered address | The doctor chooses whether to make it public online; an address not being listed does not mean there is a problem |
| Nature and year of qualification | The year is the year the qualification was obtained, not the registration date |
| Specialist registration | For doctors on the Specialist Register, the record also shows the specialist registration number and the specialty |
Are Cardiology, Paediatric Cardiology and Cardio-thoracic Surgery the same specialty?
The Specialist Register revised in September 2026 lists 66 specialties (no doctor is registered in one of them, Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, S48). Cardiology (S13), Paediatric Cardiology (S68) and Cardio-thoracic Surgery (S31) are three different specialties; to find an adult cardiology specialist, look at the Cardiology list.
What can I find in the Primary Care Directory?
The Primary Care Directory is managed by the Primary Healthcare Commission under the Health Bureau, and registered doctors who meet the conditions can apply to join (doctors taking part in government-subsidised primary healthcare schemes such as the Elderly Health Care Voucher Scheme must have joined); a doctor's record lists the Medical Council registration number, the specialist registration number, professional qualifications, practice address and consultation hours.
The information in the Directory is updated online by the doctors themselves, and each record states its update date and that it is for reference only; the Directory includes only doctors who have applied to join, so not finding a doctor there does not mean the doctor is not registered.
We suggest taking the Medical Council registration number from the Directory record and checking it against the Medical Council's list.
For other official ways to check a doctor, see official ways to check a doctor in Hong Kong; for what qualification abbreviations mean, see What is FHKAM?.
What does the law say?
Wilfully or falsely pretending to be a registered medical practitioner or to be on the Specialist Register is an offence, punishable on conviction by a fine at level 6 and imprisonment for 3 years (Medical Registration Ordinance, section 28).
A registered medical practitioner must hold a valid practising certificate in force at the time to practise in Hong Kong (Medical Registration Ordinance, section 20A).
A doctor must be on the Specialist Register to hold himself or herself out as a specialist (Medical Council Code of Professional Conduct, section 7, October 2022); for what qualification abbreviations mean, see What is FHKAM?.
Common misconceptions
‘The year on the list is the year the doctor registered or started practising’: no. It is the year the qualification was obtained.
‘If I cannot find a doctor in the Primary Care Directory, the doctor is not registered’: no. The Directory includes only doctors who have applied to join; whether a doctor is registered is shown on the Medical Council's list.
‘A specialist qualification on the name card means the doctor is a specialist’: not necessarily. The doctor must be on the Medical Council's Specialist Register, and only in the specialty in which he or she is registered.
Frequently asked questions
Does the Medical Council's list show doctors' Chinese names?
For doctors with a Chinese name, the list shows both the Chinese and English names, and you can also search by Chinese name; doctors with the same name are distinguished by registration number.
How do I know whether a doctor is a cardiology specialist?
Look at the Cardiology (code S13) list in the Medical Council's Specialist Register, or the specialist registration field on the doctor's record. Paediatric Cardiology (S68) and Cardio-thoracic Surgery (S31) are separate specialties.
What is a specially registered doctor?
Special registration is Part V of the General Register, allowing eligible non-locally trained doctors to be employed full-time by a specified institution, that is, the Department of Health, the Hospital Authority, the University of Hong Kong or the Chinese University of Hong Kong; a specially registered doctor may only be employed as a doctor by the nominating institution.
Where can I see whether a doctor has a disciplinary inquiry record?
The Medical Council website publishes, by year, the gazetted judgments of disciplinary inquiries held on or after 2 July 2008, available in English only.
Where do I find a doctor's registration number?
In the ‘List of Registered Medical Practitioners’ on the Medical Council website, use ‘Search Registered Medical Practitioners’ and enter the doctor's Chinese or English name; doctors with the same name are told apart by registration number. For doctors who have joined the Primary Care Directory, the Directory record also shows the Medical Council registration number, which you can check against the Medical Council's list.
If I cannot find a doctor in the Primary Care Directory, does that mean the doctor is not registered?
No. The Directory includes only doctors who have applied to join, so not finding a doctor there does not mean the doctor is not registered; whether a doctor is registered is shown by the Medical Council's list.