NHRA - National Health Regulatory Authority

The National Health Regulatory Authority (NHRA) is an independent regulatory body established by Law No. 38 of 2009. NHRA’s mission is to regulate the provision of healthcare in Bahrain and ensure high efficiency, safety and effectiveness in delivering health services; both in the governmental and private sectors based on the best scientific principles and health practice standards accredited in the Kingdom.

The vision of NHRA is to ensure a Safe and High quality in the delivery of health care. We aim to be able to achieve our vision through three strategic goals:

  • Regulated and accountable healthcare facilities: We ensure that all health care facilities meet the required standards for licensing.
  • Safe and trusted health services: We are committed to continuously monitor the quality of the provision of health services to ensure compliance with evidence-based practices and accreditation standards.
  • Preserved patients health rights: we will act to protect the rights and the safety of all people who use the health care facilities.

The department of Health care Professionals regulations at NHRA is responsible for issuing all professional licensing and follows an internal process that requires submitting application forms and documents that are a pre-requisite before issuing the license.  

Certain applicants may be required to pass the Bahrain licensure examination prior to being issued a license to practice in the Kingdom of Bahrain. The professions currently required to go through the examinations currently include:

  1. Medical Practitioner

  2. Dental Practitioner

  3. Nurses

  4. Pharmacist

All examination applications must be submitted to NHRA, which will in turn generate a unique eligibility number for the candidate in order for the candidate to be able to register for the prometric examination. The eligibility number will be valid for a maximum of four months from the date of issue. 

Please note that the examination's seating time is 3 hrs. Actual examination time is 2.5 hrs.

Number of Examination Attempts

As per decision number 11 for the year 2015 pertaining to the licensure examinations, the following applies for the number of permitted examination attempts:

  1. An applicant may be allowed to appear for the licensure examination four consecutive times including previous examination attempts provided that the attempts are done within a maximum of three years from the first attempt.

  2. Should the applicant fail the fourth attempt, he/she will be required to go through a re-training period of a minimum of six months and to provide proof of completion of this training.

  3. Following the re-training period, the applicant may be permitted to re-appear for the licensure examination for two more attempts provided that they are done within a maximum of two years from the date of completion of re-training.

Examination results:

The pass grade is set at 60% for all Bahrain licensure examinations

For further inquiries about het examination please contact us through email: licensure@nhra.bh.