The Diploma in Occupational Medicine (DOccMed) is awarded by the Faculty of Occupational Medicine of the Royal College of Physicians, and it demonstrates competence as a generalist working in occupational medicine. Introduced in 1994, it is designed for GPs and other doctors who work part-time in, or have an interest in, occupational health. It has three components — a multiple-choice paper, a written portfolio and an oral viva — and a Faculty-approved training course is a mandatory prerequisite. This guide covers the format, the course requirement, the 2026 dates, and how to prepare.
What the DOccMed is and who sits it
The DOccMed is a Faculty of Occupational Medicine credential for doctors practising part-time in, or interested in, occupational medicine, and it signals competence as a generalist in the field. Its typical candidates are GPs and doctors in other branches of medicine who provide, or want to provide, occupational health services — often as part of a portfolio career. Demand for occupational health input has grown — around fitness-for-work decisions, support for people with long-term conditions, and workplace mental health — and the DOccMed is a practical way for a GP or generalist to formalise that work. It is also the entry point to the Faculty's membership ladder, since the MCQ is shared with the Part 1 MFOM, so candidates who later pursue specialist occupational medicine do not repeat it.
The mandatory course
You must complete an FOM-approved DOccMed training course before applying for the examination. This is a hard requirement rather than a recommendation. Approved courses are run part-time and online, typically over around four months, by universities and independent providers, and are structured to cover the full syllabus. It is worth choosing and booking your course early, because it gates everything else. Course availability and the limited examination places together mean the timeline is best planned around a year ahead, particularly if you are fitting study around clinical commitments.
Format: three components
The DOccMed has three parts. The MCQ paper is a multiple-choice examination held online via the TestReach platform; it is the same MCQ as the Part 1 MFOM membership examination, so passing MFOM Part 1 is deemed to satisfy the Diploma MCQ provided the other components are completed within five years. The portfolio is a written assignment comprising a workplace risk assessment and a clinical case. The oral viva is an examination based on, and defending, that written portfolio. You must complete both the MCQ and the oral and portfolio assessment within a five-year period. The same MCQ also underpins the DipOHPrac, the equivalent diploma for nurses and allied health professionals, who sit the paper alongside doctors.
The syllabus
The syllabus covers the fundamentals of occupational health, medicine and hygiene: fitness for work and return-to-work assessment, workplace hazards — physical, chemical, biological, ergonomic and psychosocial — and their risk assessment, the recognition and management of work-related and work-aggravated illness, health surveillance, the law and ethics of occupational health, and the management of common workplace health issues from musculoskeletal disorders to mental health. Sickness-absence management, ill-health retirement, the relevant employment and equality law, confidentiality and consent in an occupational setting, and the report-writing that occupational physicians do for employers and employees all sit within the syllabus. In short, it is as much about the framework of occupational health practice as about clinical knowledge.
2026 dates
The DOccMed examinations run twice a year. For 2026, registration for the May sitting opens at 9am on Monday 12 January 2026 and closes at 5pm on Monday 9 March 2026; registration for the November sitting opens at 9am on Monday 27 July 2026 and closes at 5pm on Monday 21 September 2026. Places are limited and allocated first-come, first-served, so apply promptly. Confirm dates and fees on the FOM site. Last reviewed June 2026.
Pass rates
The FOM does not routinely publish a headline DOccMed pass rate. Because the diploma combines a structured course, a portfolio and a viva, preparation is more sustained than for a single sit-down exam, and the components test different skills. That structure rewards candidates who treat the diploma as a course of work spread over months rather than an exam to cram for, and who keep the five-year completion window in view from the start.
How to prepare
The approved course is mandatory and frames your preparation, so engage fully with it. For the MCQ, practise applied occupational-medicine questions and review each miss back to the underlying principle. For the portfolio and viva, start the workplace risk assessment and clinical case early, build them carefully to the Faculty's requirements, and rehearse defending your reasoning aloud — the viva is built directly on your own written work, so fluency in explaining and justifying your decisions matters as much as the content. It helps to draw your portfolio cases from real work you are already doing, so that the workplace risk assessment and the clinical case are genuine and you can speak to them confidently when challenged.
Where iatroX fits
iatroX offers an occupational-medicine question bank for the DOccMed MCQ, on iatroX's subscription (£29/month or £99/year). It leads with a Socratic tutor that works back through the reasoning behind a miss; questions mapped meticulously to the syllabus; spaced repetition; adaptive sequencing that targets your weak areas; and a mobile app. It supports the MCQ component; the portfolio and viva will need your own workplace cases and rehearsal.
A few common questions
Do I have to do a course? Yes — an FOM-approved training course is mandatory before you can sit.
How many components are there? Three — the MCQ, the portfolio and the oral viva.
Does MFOM Part 1 count? Yes — passing MFOM Part 1 is deemed to satisfy the Diploma MCQ, provided the other components are completed within five years.
Is iatroX's occupational-medicine bank free? Not in full — the bank is on iatroX's subscription (£29/month or £99/year), with free sample questions to try first.