More than 2,000 doctors in Brighton have a licence to practice under a change to the law which came into force this week.
The total for Brighton and Hove is an astonishing 2,370 licensed doctors.
Since Monday 16 November, doctors have been required by law to have a licence to practice as well as be registered with the General Medical Council.
Brighton and Hove City Primary Care Trust described it as the biggest change in medical regulation since the first medical register was published 150 years ago.
Professor Peter Rubin, chairman of the GMC, said: “The successful start to licensing is a major milestone towards the introduction of revalidation, a new process by which doctors will have to regularly demonstrate to the GMC that they remain up to date and fit to practise in the job they do.”
The law requires any doctor who treats patients – NHS or private – to be registered with a licence to practise. Only doctors registered with a licence to practise can write prescriptions or sign death certificates.
Doctors who hold registration but not a licence are more likely to be working abroad or, say, in Britain as an academic.
While there are 49 GP surgeries in Brighton and Hove, each with at least one doctor, many more work at the city’s hospitals – Brighton General, the Royal Sussex County, the Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital and the Sussex Eye Hospital.
