What does "struck off" mean?
What erasure from the medical, nursing, or dental register actually means in practice — and the difference between erasure, suspension, and conditions on practice.
Written by the MedicWatch editorial team. Last reviewed 25 April 2026.
When a UK healthcare practitioner is "struck off", their name has been removed from the regulator's register. They are no longer entitled to practise that profession in the UK. The technical term used by the regulators is erasure.
What erasure means
Erasure is the most serious sanction a regulator can impose. After erasure, the practitioner cannot lawfully work as a doctor, nurse, midwife, or dentist in the UK. Continuing to practise after erasure is a criminal offence.
Erasure is generally reserved for misconduct that the regulator considers fundamentally incompatible with continued practice. Examples include serious dishonesty, sexual misconduct, deliberate harm to patients, or repeated failures to meet standards despite previous warnings.
How erasure differs from suspension and conditions
A suspension is a pause in the right to practise for a fixed period — usually three months to twelve months, sometimes longer. At the end of the suspension, the practitioner is automatically restored to the register unless a further hearing extends or replaces the suspension. Conditions of practice allow the practitioner to continue working but only under specific restrictions, such as supervision or a ban on a particular procedure.
Erasure has no fixed end date. A practitioner who has been erased can apply for restoration, but only after a minimum waiting period (five years for doctors, dentists, and nurses), and the restoration application is heard at a separate tribunal that considers whether they are now fit to practise.
Voluntary erasure
Sometimes a practitioner asks to be removed from the register voluntarily, for example because they are retiring, leaving the country, or no longer wish to practise. This is called voluntary erasure or voluntary removal. The regulator may decline a voluntary erasure request if there is a fitness-to-practise case underway, on the basis that allowing voluntary removal would frustrate the investigation.
Where voluntary erasure is granted during or shortly after a fitness-to-practise case, the regulator's record will say so. MedicWatch records voluntary erasures alongside other determinations.
How long the record stays public
Regulators apply their own publication policies to register entries and hearing decisions. A record may be removed, replaced or no longer linked from an index. Check the regulator's current register and later decisions before drawing conclusions from an older account.
MedicWatch may retain a historical account where a case-specific public-interest assessment supports it. We consider accuracy, later outcomes, rehabilitation and privacy rather than assuming that every record should remain indexed indefinitely.
Sources
Browse MedicWatch's record of erasures.
Continue →