Scope of registration

Page last updated: 29 January 2025

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Medical practitioners in independent practice

In Schedule 2, paragraph 3, an exception applies to the provision of treatment in a surgery or consulting room by a medical practitioner who is (or a group of medical practitioners who are):

  • a service provider already registered for the regulated activity of Treatment of disease, disorder or injury

or

  • employed by such a service provider

and either

  • on the medical performers list for a designated body

or

  • employed by a service provider that is a designated body.

By medical practitioner, we mean a doctor registered with the General Medical Council.

This exception does not apply to medical practitioners who are carrying out the following procedures detailed in Schedule 2, paragraph 4:

  1. treatment carried out under anaesthesia or intravenously administered sedation, apart from the following procedures detailed in Schedule 1, paragraph 6(2):
    • nail surgery and nail bed procedures on any area of the foot that are carried out using local anaesthesia or without anaesthesia
    • curettage (scraping), cautery (burning) or cryocautery (freezing) of warts, verrucae or other skin lesions carried out using local anaesthesia or without anaesthesia
  2. medical services provided in connection with childbirth
  3. the termination of pregnancies
  4. cosmetic surgery, with the exception of:
    • the piercing of any part of the human body
    • tattooing
    • subcutaneous injections of a substance(s) to enhance appearance
    • removal of hair roots or small blemishes on the skin by applying heat using an electric current
  5. haemodialysis or peritoneal dialysis
  6. endoscopy, other than using a device that does not have a lumen or another channel designed to pass fluid or instruments through, or remove body tissue or fluid or any other item from, a person’s body
  7. providing hyperbaric therapy, by administering oxygen (whether or not combined with one or more other gases) to a person who is in a sealed chamber that is gradually pressurised with compressed air, where the therapy is carried out by or under the supervision or direction of a medical practitioner
  8. intravenous, intrathecal or epidural administration of medicines or diagnostic agents
  9. the therapeutic or diagnostic use of x-rays, radiation, protons or magnetic resonance imaging
  10. invasive cardiac physiology tests.

For the purpose of this guidance, granting of practising privileges by a designated body is considered the same as being employed by the designated body.

This exception does not apply to an organisation or a partnership that employs a range of staff as well as medical practitioners. It does not apply to treatment provided outside of a surgery or consulting room, or to treatment provided remotely over the telephone, by video consultation or by email.

This diagram illustrates this exception for medical practitioners working in private practice.

Diagram alternative to written guidance for Medical practitioners in independent practice