What "credential-verified" should actually mean when a supplier claims it
"Verified" is not a regulated term — any recruitment supplier can put it on a landing page. What should change your confidence is a supplier being able to name exactly what was checked, against what source, and how recently — and being honest about what the check does not establish. Here is the checklist to hold any supplier, including us, to.
Quick answer
- Ask: what was checked?
- Identity, degree, licence, employment history — or some subset. "Verified" alone does not tell you which.
- Ask: against what source?
- A primary source (the issuing regulator/institution, confirmed directly) is a materially stronger claim than a reviewed document.
- Ask: how recently?
- A registration checked once at signup can lapse, be suspended, or expire — ask whether it is re-checked, and how often.
- Ask: what if it fails?
- Is a candidate who cannot be verified excluded, or shown with a caveat? This tells you what "verified" is actually gating.
A checklist for evaluating any supplier’s claim
- Scope — identity, the medical degree, current licence status, specialty claim, and/or employment history: which of these, specifically, does "verified" cover?
- Method — was the underlying document reviewed by a human, checked via an automated regulator-register lookup, or confirmed via a third-party primary-source-verification service? Each is a different level of assurance, and none is inherently disqualifying — but the supplier should be able to name theirs.
- Recency — a one-time check at signup does not catch a licence that lapses, is suspended, or is not renewed later. Ask whether and how often it is refreshed.
- Failure handling — what happens to a candidate whose credential cannot be confirmed? If the answer is "shown anyway," the label is doing less work than it implies.
- Proof, not just trust — can the claim be checked independently (for example, a cryptographically signed attestation you can verify against a published key), or does it rest entirely on taking the supplier’s word for it?
Where GeraClinic’s own process sits on this
GeraClinic verifies doctors through a manual credential and identity review by the Gera team — a human review of submitted registration numbers, issuing authority, qualifications and government ID, approved or rejected with a recorded reason. Automated, real-time lookups against every national medical-council register (GMC, BMDC, PMC, KMPDC and others) are on the roadmap and not yet live — we say this plainly rather than implying a fuller check than exists today. Once approved, a doctor receives a Gera Vouch attestation, cryptographically signed and independently checkable against our published public key. The full, honest process — including its stated limits — is documented at /how-we-verify-doctors.
Frequently asked questions
Why does "verified" need unpacking at all?
Because it is used to mean very different things across the industry — anything from "we saw a scanned certificate" to "we independently confirmed this with the issuing regulator." Two suppliers can both claim "verified doctors" while doing meaningfully different amounts of checking. The claim is only useful once you know exactly what was checked.
What five questions should an employer ask a supplier making this claim?
What specifically was checked (identity, degree, licence, employment history, or some subset)? Was it checked against the primary source (the issuing regulator or institution) or only reviewed as a submitted document? Who did the checking — the supplier’s own staff, or an accredited third-party verification service? When was it last checked — a one-time check at signup can be stale years later. What happens if a credential cannot be confirmed — is the person excluded, or shown anyway with a caveat?
How does GeraClinic verify the doctors in its own pool?
Through a manual review by the Gera team of each doctor’s submitted registration number, issuing authority, qualifications and identity documents, approved or rejected with a recorded reason — today a human document review, not yet an automated real-time lookup against every national medical-council register (that is on the roadmap). Verified doctors receive a cryptographically signed Gera Vouch attestation that can be checked independently against Gera’s published public key. The full process is documented at /how-we-verify-doctors.
Is a signed attestation the same as a regulatory guarantee?
No. A signed attestation is proof of what the verifier attested and when — it is not insurance, indemnity, or a clinical-quality guarantee, and it does not replace the doctor’s own national regulator as the actual licensing authority. Any credible verification process should be explicit about this distinction rather than implying more certainty than it can deliver.
Sources & further reading
These are the primary, official sources for everything on this page. Where figures appear, confirm the current value at the source before relying on it.
- GMC — List of Registered Medical Practitioners (check a doctor’s registration)
The GMC’s public, free register — the only authoritative way to confirm a doctor is currently registered with a licence to practise in the UK.
- DataFlow Group — Primary Source Verification
The primary-source-verification vendor used by DHA, DOH, SCFHS, MOH and other Gulf regulators to confirm a degree, licence or employment record directly with the issuing body.
- UK ENIC — Statement of Comparability
The UK’s national body (operated by Ecctis) for comparing an overseas qualification against UK qualification levels — used for employment, study and some professional-registration purposes.