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Medical lawyer. Specializes in protecting the rights of doctors and patients, handling medical malpractice and liability cases, supporting disability determination and appeals procedures, and providing legal analysis of medical documentation.
Termination of a medical practice license
If you have decided to stop practicing medicine, it is important to do it legally and without risks in the future. The license can be terminated (cancelled) in whole or in part. In addition, such cases can be divided into several categories – a voluntary desire of a medical institution to stop its activities or by decision of the Ministry of Health or a court, in case of violation of license conditions.
Termination of a license for medical practice deprives a medical institution, a self-employed doctor of the right to conduct legal activities. We will consider when and how this happens in the article below.
Termination of a license for medical practice in whole or in part: what is the difference?
In medical practice, it often happens that a medical institution decides to close one of its departments or one of its activities, for example, a children’s ward. In such cases, it is necessary to terminate the license only in a certain part. If a decision is made to completely close the practice, the license is terminated completely. But what is the difference between these two concepts?
Partial termination of the license does not stop the activities of the medical institution. The provision of medical services is terminated only at a certain address or in certain specialties that are removed from the licensee’s file. Most often, licensees themselves initiate this procedure for the purpose of internal reorganization. Less often, this happens at the request of the licensing authority, which has the right to periodically inspect the institution and identify violations.
Complete termination is the complete cessation of medical activities. The permit is canceled, accordingly, the right to conduct medical activities simply ceases to exist. Complete cancellation of such a license is possible only on the grounds specified in Article 16 of the Law of Ukraine “On Licensing Types of Economic Activities”. More details on this are provided in the following questions.
What are the cases of termination of a medical practice license?
Voluntarily at the initiative of a medical institution, self-employed doctor
This is the most popular way to terminate a license. It is used when a medical institution or doctor consciously decides to exit the market due to:
- complete liquidation of the medical center;
- partial suspension of the medical institution’s activities in a certain part.
There are also cases when the Ministry of Health terminates the license in the event of the death of the licensee and the establishment of a relevant legal fact (recognition of his death). To initiate such a procedure, the licensee submits an application of the established form to the Ministry of Health and waits from 5 to 10 business days for the adoption of an appropriate decision.
Forcibly by decision of the licensing authority (MOH)
Forcible termination occurs due to the inclusion of a medical institution, individual entrepreneur in one of the sanction lists, the establishment of significant violations of the conditions for conducting activities during the inspection, the issuance of a court decision on bringing to administrative or criminal liability. According to the current national legislation, the list of grounds for the adoption of the relevant decision of the Ministry of Health is as follows:
- after the inspection, the entity did not eliminate the violation within the established period (did not submit a report);
- repeated violation of the same licensing conditions, in respect of which an order of the Ministry of Health was already issued during the last year;
- an act of inaccuracy in the documents submitted for obtaining a license was issued;
- obstruction of control by the Ministry of Health (conducting an inspection);
- a court decision was issued recognizing the person as missing, deceased, which brought him to legal responsibility (this may also be followed by the entry of a medical institution or individual entrepreneur into one of the sanction lists).
What is the responsibility for conducting medical practice after the termination of the license?
Conducting medical practice without a license is equated to illegal economic activity and entails administrative or even criminal liability. In particular, citizens may face both a fine and imprisonment for an appropriate period. The penalties are given in the table.
| Code of Administrative Offenses (Article 164) | Criminal Code of Ukraine (Article 138) |
| ● a fine of 17,000 to 34,000 UAH for the first violation and doubling of the specified amount for a repeat violation within the next year, mandatory confiscation of equipment | ● corrective labor for 2 years, restriction or deprivation of liberty for a term of up to 3 years (if such activity led to serious consequences, such as the death of the patient) |
Please note! In addition to the court verdict, the doctor also faces serious reputational consequences. This leads to the termination of the contract with the National Health Insurance Fund and the inability to issue medical documents (hospital letters, certificates, prescriptions, etc.). For more information, we suggest ordering a consultation with one of our medical law lawyers.
Legal support for the termination/renewal of a medical practice license: what services do we offer?
Legal Consulting
With qualifications and practical experience in cases of obtaining and renewing medical licenses (of various fields), our lawyers help you understand complex legal regulations, analyze innovations in licensing conditions (for 2026 and before), and develop a strategy for action. As part of the consultations, they will:
- fully study your case;
- provide an assessment of legal risks;
- develop an algorithm of actions based on your request.
Documentary support
The next stage is the main work with documents for submission to the Ministry of Health. This service may include both the preparation and submission of an application to the Ministry of Health for renewal or termination of the license. The lawyer can also correct errors in documents already submitted to this end, if the licensing authority has returned them with comments.
Appealing illegal actions and decisions of the licensing authority
Finally, if you are convinced that the refusals or comments were made by the Ministry of Health against you without legal grounds, then the medical law lawyer of our company “Prikhodko & Partners” will provide support for a pre-trial or judicial appeal. This includes both the preparation of a complaint to the Expert and Appellate Council on Licensing under the State Regulatory Service of Ukraine, and the filing of a lawsuit in a local court.
Don’t waste time: get a consultation and find out the cost of legal support in the case of termination of a medical practice license by filling out the form below.
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