19 de April, 2019
Since the equivalence stage of your medical degree has been won, now prepare yourself for the next step in fulfilling your dream of becoming a doctor in Portugal: registration with the Portuguese Medical Association (OM).
Follow this article with all the step-by-step documentation and tips to successfully conclude this phase of your journey to the professional practice of medicine in Portugal.
Haven’t you asked for the equivalence of your medical degree in Portugal? Find out how to do it in this article.
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The application must be made in person, by the applicant himself or by an attorney, at the Medical Association (OM) chosen (usually Lisbon, Porto or Coimbra, which are the largest) and is basically composed of 2 stages:
1. Application requirement;
2. Request for Medical Exercise Autonomy.
Both applications can be submitted simultaneously, however, the authorization of the autonomous exercise of medicine is evaluated by a jury and may take a few months (3-6 months) depending on the time of year the application is submitted.
Thus, it is possible to be called for registration in the order even before the final decision of the jury on the autonomous exercise of medicine.
The list of documents and legislation can be consulted on OM’s own website.
In general, the documents required for the application are as follows:
1. form of a model approved for registration made available by OM;
2. Passport, photocopy, authenticated and apostilled, or checked by OM services;
3. Bachelor’s degree or authenticated and apostilled photocopy;
4. Certificate of equivalence awarded by a higher education institution in Portugal;
5. Certificate of criminal record, issued less than 3 months ago by the authorities of the country of origin with notarized and apostilled signature;
6. Fiscal Taxpayer Card – NIF or photocopy authenticated or verified by OM services;
7. Proof of professional conduct, issued by the competent authority for the registration and disciplinary control of doctors from the country of origin or provenance. This proof shall attest that the person concerned is in a legal position to exercise the profession without restrictions and that there are no pending disciplinary proceedings or disciplinary sanctions. If you have never practiced medicine in Brazil, you should ask your region’s CRM for a statement of how you have never been enrolled and, therefore, have not practiced medicine;
8. Certificate of reciprocity (not necessary in case of medical training in Brazil);
9. Three original passport photos (3×4);
10. Curriculum Vitae prepared and instructed in order to prove the lawful and effective professional practice of the medical profession.
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In Portugal, unlike in Brazil, the professional practice of medicine is conditioned to recent graduates. They need one year of subordinate professional experience (General Training Internship) in order to later acquire the autonomy of medicine even after completing the medical course.
Therefore, all doctors trained in Brazil need to prove the professional practice of medicine for at least 3 years in the last 5 years, in full time work, at least 40 hours a week, to have the right to practice medicine autonomously in Portuguese territory.
Thus, interested parties should gather evidence of the professional experience acquired during this period and submit it together with the other documents in the OM application for registration. They will then be evaluated by an OM jury that will determine whether or not the candidate is eligible for the autonomous exercise.
Equivalence to the master’s degree in medicine: see the step by step to achieve it.
After registration with OM, it is necessary to schedule to make the OM Card in person. It will be necessary to take a digital photograph on the spot and the digital signature will be collected.
This professional ballot is very useful for the exercise of medicine in Portugal, since besides serving as identification it is used for the prescription of electronic prescriptions.
Want to know more about electronic prescription and how to be a doctor in Portugal? Read this article.
In Portugal it is necessary to choose a professional name that can be shorter than your full name. As a rule of thumb, no two professional names should be the same or confusing as the name of another physician already enrolled.
Thus, this process that seems complicated is only more bureaucratic and time consuming than the registration in our Brazilian CRM, but with organization it becomes quite simple.
If you have already reached this stage, PARABÉNS! Your goal has been achieved and you are already a doctor authorized to practice medicine in Portugal.
However, if you are a specialist and want to act as a specialist in Portugal, you will still need to go through the last stage, with recognition of your medical specialty. Keep following me, that in one of the next articles we will talk about this topic!
Article published on the Euro Tips website: https://www.eurodicas.com.br/inscricao-na-ordem-dos-medicos-em-portugal/
Dr. Mariana Ramalho
Associate Medical Consultant
Author:
Atlantic Bridge
