The Supreme Council of Health, (SCH) today announced that a new assessment test for those seeking licenses to practice health professions in Qatar.The SCH has signed an exclusive long term agreement with Prometric, the world’s leading provider of technology-enabled testing and assessment services, for the exam delivery. This step comes in line with the Council's directions to establish modern, state-of-the-art criteria to select the best practitioners to work in healthcare institutions.

Dr. Jamal Khanji, Director of Medical Licensing, said that these qualifying exams are expected to be resumed as of the last week of March 2010. They will include six types of disciplines which are general medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, X-ray technicians, physiotherapy and nursing. In the future, these disciplines may be raised to ten. Dr. Khanji added that all the details will be shown at the SCH website, so that all interested persons can be registered with the Medical Licensing Department. He mentioned that the new system is an advanced instrument which is expected to benefit the potential employers to choose the best qualified medical professionals, even before the arrive to Qatar, as the can be able to take the test anywhere, anytime at any of Prometric centres.

Collaborating with Prometric as its test services partner, SCH will completely eliminate its paper and pencil exams, from its testing operation and will convert all of its exams to a computer-based format. Computerizing its examinations will make English medical examinations accessible in Qatar as well as widely accessible globally and will ensure availability to all of the potential test takers.

  “Our partnership with Prometric is another significant step forward in fulfilling our mission to protect the health and safety of the public of Qatar by ensuring all licensing health practitioners are competent and fit to practice,” said Dr Jamal Rashid Khanji, SCH's Acting Director of Medical Licensing. “We are looking forward to a long and fruitful partnership with Prometric as we work towards our vision of building the leading medical regulatory authority in the region.”

Dr. Khanji added that the agreement with Prometric was concluded in a short time due to the keen interest shown by H.E. Mr Abdulla Bin Khalid Al Qahtani, Minister of Public Health and Secretary General of the SCH, in this issue coupled with his continuous support for this scheme.

Mr. Mohamed Shadid, Prometric Regional Development Manager explained that the Company has developed the exams for Qatar in a way that serves the objectives sought by the SCH, and in line with the Gulf market requirements. These exams have been developed by high caliber and experience professionals in the USA, Europe and the Arab Region. He added that the new system will  completely eliminate any possibility of examination leak or suspicion of the results. There is also a tough scrutiny procedure for identifying the candidates sitting for the eaxam. The exams will be taken electronically through the computer. The system is also flexible in that it allows candidates to take the exams all year round, anywhere in the world including Doha. It also allows any number of people to take the exam and at different times as the questions are not similar for any examinees at the same place and time.

Prometric has nearly 10 000 testing centres spread over 164 countries. The Company delivers and manages more than 8 million tests on behalf of 450 of its clients around the world.  representative of the confidence they have in our ability to help them advance their brand, program and standards in Qatar and around the world.”