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DHA vs DOH vs MOHAP: which UAE exam do you need?
The UAE does not license doctors nationally. Dubai, Abu Dhabi and the rest of the country each run their own licensing exam, through their own regulator, and passing one does not license you for the other two. Which one you need comes down to a single question: where is the job?
Last checked 19 August 2026. Figures below are copied from PassCurve's own DHA, DOH and MOHAP guides. Where a cell says "not published" or "not stated", that is what the source said, not a gap in this page's research.
The three-way split, explained
DHA is the Dubai Health Authority's exam. It licenses you to practise in Dubai, and nowhere else.
DOH is the Department of Health Abu Dhabi's exam. It licenses you to practise in Abu Dhabi. The regulator was called the Health Authority Abu Dhabi, HAAD, until it was renamed in 2019, and a decade of forum posts and recall collections still call this the HAAD exam. HAAD exam and DOH exam mean the same assessment.
MOHAP, the Ministry of Health and Prevention, is the UAE's federal regulator. Its exam licenses you for the northern emirates, and for federal and private sector facilities outside Dubai's and Abu Dhabi's direct remit. The UAE's health authorities are building a national unified licensing platform, but today each of the three still runs its own exam and its own booking process.
Which one do I sit?
- Job is in Dubai: sit the DHA exam.
- Job is in Abu Dhabi: sit the DOH exam.
- Job is in the northern emirates, or at a federal or private facility outside Dubai's or Abu Dhabi's direct remit: sit the MOHAP exam.
A pass on one does not carry over to the others. If your plans could take you to more than one emirate, budget time and fees for more than one exam. All three test the same four clinical domains through the same single best answer vignette format, so preparation for one substantially covers the others, but the booking, the fee and the licence itself are separate for each.
How the three compare
Read this table for what it is: what each regulator has and has not put in writing, not PassCurve's estimate of the true figure.
| DHA | DOH | MOHAP | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Regulator | Dubai Health Authority | Department of Health Abu Dhabi (formerly HAAD, renamed 2019) | Ministry of Health and Prevention |
| Licenses | Dubai | Abu Dhabi | Northern emirates, plus federal and private facilities outside Dubai's and Abu Dhabi's direct remit |
| Format (General Practice) | 150 MCQs, 3 hours (published) | Not published | Not published |
| Question type | Clinical vignettes, single best answer | Clinical vignettes, single best answer | Clinical vignettes, single best answer |
| Language | English | English | English |
| Test centre | Prometric (published) | Not confirmed; sources report both Prometric and Pearson VUE | Prometric, per preparation sources (not officially confirmed) |
| Pass mark | 60% (published) | Not published; candidate reports cluster around 60 to 65% | Not published; preparation sources commonly describe around 60% |
| Attempts | Not stated in the source read for this site | Not stated in the source read for this site | Maximum of 3 (published); a fourth attempt is not permitted |
| Fee | USD 280 (published) | Not found in the sources read for this site | Application fee and licence fee only; no separate exam-sitting line published |
| Domain breakdown published | No | No | No |
What DOH and MOHAP don't publish
DHA is the outlier in one respect: it has a published applicant guideline, on its own Sheryan portal, that states the question count, the time allowed, the fee and the pass mark in writing. DOH and MOHAP do not have an equivalent public document.
For DOH, no official format document was found: the 150 question, 3 hour shape is commonly reported rather than confirmed, no pass mark is published (the result is a straight pass or fail, with candidate reports clustering around 60 to 65%), and even the test centre provider is unconfirmed, with sources reporting both Prometric and Pearson VUE.
For MOHAP, the pattern repeats: no official format document, no published pass mark, and a fee schedule that lists an application fee and a licence fee with no separate line for the exam itself. The one hard number MOHAP does publish is stricter than either neighbour: a maximum of three attempts, with a fourth not permitted.
What all three have in common
Despite the gaps, the three papers are close cousins. All three are computer based exams of single best answer clinical vignettes, sat in English, built around the same four clinical domains: internal medicine, surgery, paediatrics, and obstetrics and gynaecology. None of the three publishes a percentage breakdown between those domains. And all three follow the same shape before the exam itself: your qualifications and experience are assessed against the regulator's own eligibility criteria first, and only once that assessment clears you are you able to book.
How PassCurve prepares you
One bank covers all three papers' shared ground: single best answer vignettes across the four clinical domains, set in UAE practice. Sessions balance the domains evenly, then tilt toward whichever is currently costing you marks. Anything you miss returns on a spacing curve until it sticks, and every answer names the guideline it rests on and the date that source was last read.
Five questions a day are free, with no card required, and the review deck is free for good.
PassCurve is an independent revision tool. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or accredited by the Dubai Health Authority, the Department of Health Abu Dhabi, the Ministry of Health and Prevention (MOHAP), Prometric, Pearson VUE, or any other exam authority. Each guide states its own sources; always confirm current exam rules, fees and dates directly with the relevant regulator before applying.