shared directory of health professionals (RPPS)

How is the number obtained?

The RPPS identifier is not applied for separately. It is allocated when the practitioner is entered on the roll of the Ordre National des Medecins, and it follows from that registration. The number stays the same throughout a career, whatever changes of employer, region or mode of practice occur, and it is linked to the professional card used to sign electronic documents and to access secure health information systems.

What is it used for?

The identifier appears on prescriptions and on the documents used for reimbursement by the health insurance system, and it is the key by which hospitals, pharmacies, laboratories and the administration identify the practitioner. Registration in the directory is also what makes a doctor visible in the public listings of practising professionals. Without the number, a newly registered doctor may in practice be unable to prescribe or to be paid, even though registration on the roll has been granted.

What does this mean for graduates from abroad?

For a doctor arriving from a university in another EU member state, or completing the procedure d'autorisation d'exercice after studies outside the Union, the RPPS number is the last administrative step before real practice begins. It is worth building a few weeks into the timetable between registration on the roll and a first working day, because the practical tools of practice depend on the identifier being issued and the professional card being received.

A common misunderstanding

The RPPS is an identifier, not an authorisation. It records that a practitioner is registered; it does not itself confer the right to practise, which comes from the qualification and the registration on the roll. It should also not be confused with the earlier ADELI numbering still used for some health professions that have no ordinal body.