The Ordre National des Medecins is the professional body of French physicians, established by the Public Health Code. Registration on its roll, the inscription au tableau, is the legal condition without which no doctor may practise in France, whatever qualification or authorisation they hold.
French institutional term; ordre in the sense of a professional order, tableau meaning the official roll of members
CNOM, Conseil National de l'Ordre des Medecins, inscription au tableau
French Medical Council registration
Application is made to the departmental council of the place where the doctor intends to practise principally. The file covers identity and nationality, the medical qualification and any speciality qualification, proof of good standing, and the ability to use French in professional practice. The council examines the file, may invite the applicant to an interview, and registers the doctor on the roll. Registration triggers the allocation of an RPPS identifier and the issue of a professional card. A doctor who moves to another department transfers the registration rather than starting again.
The body applies the code of medical ethics, which forms part of the Public Health Code, reviews the contracts that doctors sign in connection with their practice, advises on the setting up of a practice, and exercises disciplinary authority through its jurisdictional chambers. It also issues the qualification decisions through which a speciality is recognised and entered on the roll, a step that matters to anyone whose speciality training took place abroad.
A doctor holding a qualification from an EU member state presents it for automatic recognition and is registered on that basis, together with the certificate of conformity issued by the competent authority of the awarding country. A doctor holding a qualification from outside the European Union is registered once the individual authorisation from the procedure d'autorisation d'exercice has been obtained. In both cases the original documents, with legalisation or an apostille and a sworn translation where required, are the heart of the file.
Holding a diploma, even a recognised one, is not the same as holding the right to practise. Registration is the act that opens practice, and it is also what allows a first contract or a replacement post to begin. Applicants who plan their arrival tightly often discover that the examination of the file by the departmental council takes weeks, and that a missing certificate from the country of origin can hold everything up.
Free and no obligation.