Sharjah Health Authority (SHA): licensing, CME and standards for healthcare professionals

In July 2025 the Sharjah Executive Council approved a decision regulating the practice of health activities and professions in the emirate, now cited as Executive Council Resolution No. 29 of 2025. As reported by Sharjah24, the official outlet of the Sharjah Government Media Bureau, it applies to local health establishments affiliated with the Government of Sharjah, to private health facilities in the emirate and its free zones, and to the professionals who work in them. Federal government health facilities operating in Sharjah are outside it.

The resolution sets out the powers of the Sharjah Health Authority, including developing licensing services for facilities, licensing health professionals and assuring the quality of healthcare services. It also provides for committees on accountability, medical practice and grievances. On 19 May 2026 the Executive Council amended Resolution No. 29 of 2025 to add administrative penalties for violations. The published announcements do not give the penalty amounts, so treat any figure quoted elsewhere with caution until you have read the official text.

Where SHA ends and MOHAP begins

• Federal facilities in Sharjah, such as those run by Emirates Health Services, sit outside the Sharjah resolution. Professionals there are licensed at federal level; see the MOHAP guide.
• Private facilities: some Ministry of Health and Prevention service pages still name Sharjah among the emirates where MOHAP deals with private facilities and their staff. If your current licence was issued by MOHAP, ask your facility's licensing officer which authority will handle your next renewal rather than assuming it will move automatically.
• Shared qualification rules: SHA is one of the four issuers of the Unified Healthcare Professional Qualification Requirements (PQR), 3rd version, dated April 2025, alongside MOHAP, the Department of Health – Abu Dhabi and the Dubai Health Authority. The SHA laws page also carries Ministerial Decision No. 51 of 2025, which amends provisions of the PQR.

SHA licensing is facility-led. Most of the professional licence services on the SHA services page are submitted by the healthcare facility on the professional's behalf through the SHA electronic portal. In practice your employer's licensing officer files your first licence, renewal, changes and cancellation, so keep them informed of anything that affects your file.

1. Assessment. A Healthcare Professional Assessment Request produces an assessment certificate for a professional title, judged on your qualifications and professional experience. Under the PQR, licensing documents are verified directly with the original or primary source.
2. Examination where required. The PQR allows three attempts across the authorities and one final attempt with a different authority. SHA runs a separate service to schedule a second or third oral or written attempt.
3. Initial licence. The facility applies for your first licence, which authorises you to work in a healthcare facility licensed by SHA.
4. Licence card. SHA issues a professional licence card, which it describes as essential for verifying the legal authorisation to practise, and reprints it after loss, damage or a change of title.
5. Changes while licensed. Adding or modifying a professional title or privileges, changing job title or scope after a new evaluation, and transfer between SHA-licensed facilities are separate services. SHA lists transfer as under implementation.

Licence types beyond full-time

The SHA renewal service sets five conditions. In SHA's own words, the professional must "fulfil the minimum annual CME/CPD points requirements as mentioned in the PQR". The other four are that the facility's licence is valid and active, that valid medical malpractice insurance covers the professional, that any outstanding fines are paid, and that a professional over 60 provides a physical and mental health report.

What goes into the renewal file

• A recent certificate confirming completion of the required hours of CME
• A copy of a valid Emirates ID
• A BLS or ACLS certificate or completion card
• A surgical logbook, for surgical specialties
• Proof of medical malpractice insurance
• The physical and mental health report, for professionals over 60

CME has its own record. SHA's "CME Points Data Update" service exists because the points are needed to renew a full-time licence, so make sure your record is complete before the facility files the renewal rather than after it is returned.

How many points?

The SHA renewal page does not print a figure; it refers to the PQR. The PQR 3rd version sets a minimum annual CME/CPD requirement for each professional category and states that "CME/CPD must be relevant to the field of the specialty". We have not been able to confirm the PQR table against the original layout, so we do not reproduce its numbers here. Ask your facility's licensing officer or SHA for the figure for your category. For planning only, the DHA, another PQR issuer, asks physicians and dentists for 40 points a year, nurses and pharmacists for 20 and allied health professionals for 10. The UAE CPD requirements guide sets all five authorities side by side.

Timing and fees

The renewal page does not state how many years a renewed licence runs or the monthly penalty amount, and it does not list a separate nursing fee. Check those details on the portal when your facility starts the application.

SHA has its own medical education functions. Clinical training centres can apply to SHA for accreditation of medical education programmes, which the authority describes as a way to ensure quality and alignment with healthcare sector requirements, and they can ask to modify the content or schedule of a CME/CPD programme. An enrolment service for professionals joining CME/CPD programmes is listed as under implementation. SHA also runs internships, residency and fellowship enrolment, so much of the formal education in the emirate passes through it.

We did not find an SHA rule on how much of the renewal requirement may be completed online, or a list of outside accrediting bodies whose certificates SHA accepts. What the renewal file asks for is a certificate confirming "the required hours of the CME". Until SHA publishes more, treat recognition of the provider as the deciding factor and check before you rely on any online programme for renewal.

We could not find a separate code of ethics published by SHA for its licensees. Its laws page instead lists the federal instruments it works with, which shows where your professional duties in Sharjah come from:

Two national texts sit across all of them. The Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct for Health Professionals was adopted at federal level by Ministerial Resolution No. 1448 of 2017, and the Patient's Rights and Responsibilities Charter by Ministerial Resolution No. 14 of 2021. The charter gives patients rights to dignity, privacy and confidentiality, informed consent, non-discrimination, refusal of treatment and access to their medical reports. SHA also worked with the DOH and MOHAP on the Healthcare Workforce Bioethics Guidelines published in August 2024.

The SHA Good Standing Certificate

• Who can apply: current or previous SHA licensees. Full-time licensees qualify. Holders of a temporary or visiting licence qualify only once it has been renewed once or twice. Interns and trainees cannot apply.
• The key document: an experience letter from an SHA-licensed facility, signed by the medical director and stamped, stating that no disciplinary action was taken against you and that you have "NOT committed any offence against the Act".
• Fees and time: AED 400 with 8 working days' processing, or AED 750 for an urgent request processed in 2 working days.
• Validity: six months from issue. That fits the PQR rule that a good standing certificate must be no older than six months when you apply for a licence with another authority.

Because the certificate rests on a letter from your medical director, request it early if you are planning a move, and keep your own file of CME certificates, appraisals and learning from incidents so you can answer any questions quickly.

Gaps in practice

SHA runs a Return-to-Work Program for professionals who have been out of practice for three years or more, with training at accredited facilities so they can requalify. That matches the PQR 3rd version, which applies its return requirements to a "discontinuity in clinical practice exceeding three (3) years" and asks for CME/CPD credits plus months of training in an approved practice setting, both rising with the length of the gap. Some other authorities' pages still describe a two-year threshold, so confirm with SHA which rule it will apply to you before you plan your return.

Professionals over 60

Every renewal after the age of 60 needs a physical and mental health report. Book the assessment well before the three-month renewal window opens so it does not hold up the file.

Each Healthcare Practise course page names the UAE laws and standards it covers. For professionals working in Sharjah, these are the closest matches to the duties in the table above:

Nurses, midwives and allied professionals, whose duties sit in Federal Law No. 6 of 2023, can start with the Nursing Ethics and Professionalism Course or the Ethics and Professionalism Course for Allied Health Professionals; pharmacists with the Pharmacy Ethics and Professionalism Course.

Resolution No. 29 of 2025 provides for accountability, medical practice and grievance committees, and the May 2026 amendment added administrative penalties. This page deals only with licensing and standards. The SHA complaints and remediation page covers what is known about how concerns are handled in Sharjah and which courses support reflection and learning; your medical liability insurer or a lawyer can advise on your own case.