Dr Necmiye Dover is a UK trained Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist originally from Turkey, who relocated to the UAE in 2024 after working as a consultant in the NHS at Gloucester Royal Hospital. She had her initial post-graduate training in Turkey and, in 2015, moved to the UK to recomplete her training in obstetrics and gynaecology. Her clinical expertise spans laparoscopic surgery, hysteroscopy, colposcopy (the diagnosis and treatment of pre-cancerous changes in the cervix), cosmetic gynaecology, and advanced labour ward management, including difficult deliveries, caesarean sections, and complex operative vaginal deliveries. Dr Dover now practises at NMC Royal Hospital, Abu Dhabi, where she shares her journey from Turkey to the UK and now to the UAE, and the professional and personal rewards that have followed.
From Turkey to the UK: A Career Built Across Two Healthcare Systems
Dr Necmiye Dover’s career began in Turkey, where she completed her initial post-graduate training. In 2015, she moved to the United Kingdom and recompleted her training in obstetrics and gynaecology within the NHS, going on to work as a consultant at Gloucester Royal Hospital. Her sub-specialty interests came to include laparoscopic surgery, hysteroscopy, and colposcopy, the diagnosis and treatment of pre-cancerous changes in the cervix, alongside a special interest in cosmetic gynaecology and active practice on the labour ward.
Her advanced training equipped her to manage some of the most complex aspects of obstetrics, including advanced labour ward management, difficult deliveries, caesarean sections, and complex operative vaginal deliveries. Talking about her NHS years, she says: “I was very grateful for the opportunities which I had in the UK. I had great colleagues and friends and a life there. The NHS is a great system and everyone there is working so hard to provide the best care for the patients.”
Why Continuity of Care Mattered, and What Was Missing
Even with her gratitude for the NHS, Dr Dover slowly came to feel that the way consultant practice was structured in the UK didn’t match how she wanted to care for her patients. “It was very difficult for me to have ownership of the patient. I would like to follow my patients and see the same patient over a reasonable duration of time. Not months ahead, but I would like to know how they’re doing, and if they need an operation, I would want to do it pretty quickly. I was feeling a little bit bitter about these patients having to wait to see me for months, not able to see them at all, or not able to treat them in a timely way.”
It hit her soon after she became a consultant. “Pretty quickly after becoming a consultant, I felt like that’s not the right job description for me, working like that.” The desire to take genuine ownership of her patients’ care, and the ability to act on it quickly, became one of the central reasons she began to look beyond the NHS.
Why Abu Dhabi and Why NMC Royal Hospital
The move to Abu Dhabi brought exactly the working environment Dr Dover had been looking for. “Here I work in a fully private corporate hospital, and they are very supportive. They would like doctors to take responsibility and ownership of their own patients, and they provide everything they can, clinic-wise, operating theatre list-wise, for us to look after our patients.”
She feels the difference most in how patients move through the system. “Patients are more satisfied with this system as well. I can see a patient in my clinic, and pretty quickly within a week, if they need a procedure, I can book it in our operating theatres. Or if they need a follow-up, they can find a slot very easily, so quickly. I get to know them in person. I know their job, I know where they’re coming from, their family, and it really thrills me because I love my job. I think empathy and getting to know your patient sometimes inside out is so important to understand what they need and what they look for in their health and healing.”
First Impressions of NMC Royal Hospital Abu Dhabi
Two months into her new role, Dr Dover’s impressions of NMC Royal Hospital, Abu Dhabi have been very positive. “All NMC hospitals are aiming for high quality care, and they are very aligned with European and British guidelines. Safety, quality, and governance is very important for NMC hospitals. In order to achieve those goals and maintain the high quality of care, they are promoting their doctors coming from abroad, especially from the UK, to participate in these governance processes.”
That commitment to safety and governance was made tangible to her almost immediately. “Two weeks after I started, I was sent as a representative doctor to do maternal and neonatal improvement plan workshops. So I was representing my hospital in two weeks, and I found it really supportive. You feel so involved in patient safety, which makes me feel like I made the right decision, because I wouldn’t like to work somewhere who doesn’t put patient safety first before finance.”
Advice for Doctors Hesitant About Relocating
Dr Dover has relocated internationally twice, first from Turkey to the UK, and now from the UK to the UAE. She has an honest take for clinicians who are hesitating. “I think that’s my personality. I like change, and I like changing place. I feel like it expands our ability to think and progress in life, and keeps us young. It never appealed to me to go to the same hospital for 20 years and work in the same job plan.”
She doesn’t pretend the doubts aren’t there. “I had hesitations from time to time, but sometimes those hesitations can prevent you from having progress in life. I was very lucky. Your qualifications in the UK don’t go away like that, and I thought, in the worst-case scenario, if I can’t make it, I can go back to the UK or to Turkey. I trusted my training, and I trusted my ability to look after my patients. I felt like this would be appreciated anywhere in the world.”
On the cultural side, she found the move smoother than many people would expect. “Coming from Turkey, it’s not an entirely different culture, and there are very many similarities. When you are trained in the UK, you become part of a multicultural community, at the hospital and outside the hospital, and here is very similar. Many people here are experts. They are here for working. What I noticed as a difference is people here are very hardworking. Their job is so important to them, and they are giving 100% of their time and effort to do their job in a good way. After I came here, I realised this was the right decision. My hesitations were very minimal, because I’m a brave person to make decisions for changing lives.”
The Decision-Making Journey
Dr Dover’s decision to relocate was not an impulsive one. The seed had been planted around three years ago, while she was still a registrar. “I had a friend working in Dubai. She was working in a small clinic in Dubai, but she seemed to be so happy. Being happy and satisfied with your job is very important wherever you work. She highly recommended Emily. She said, ‘I used another agency, but use Emily and her agency to come to UAE, because they only work with very reliable corporate institutions and hospitals, and they follow their doctors’ licensing process very vigorously and meticulously, and you can trust them. They’re not going to make you upset during this process.’”
Although she explored other routes, including through a friend who is a CEO at one of the corporate hospitals in Abu Dhabi, the experience reinforced her decision. “I had an interview with the hospital, but it was never like Allocation Assist, because Allocation Assist has teams in licensing, in advertisement, and even preparing your profile. There is a team for you preparing your CV. As soon as I saw that my friend cannot really help me, I contacted Allocation. I was a consultant by then, and I was having doubts about, is this what you want to do for the rest of the 20 years of your life? And I said no, I want another change, and I contacted Allocation Assist.”
The Licensing Process and the Value of UK Training
One of the practical concerns for many UK consultants considering a move is the licensing process. In Dr Dover’s experience, this was where her UK training, and the structured support she received, made a clear difference. “It was very smooth, and I think UK certifications and qualities make the process very smooth.”
She is full of praise for the grounding NHS training gave her. “The one thing the UK is great. The NHS and training is very structured, and they make sure that you know what you do. Even if you’re taking a history from a patient, it has standards. I have to admit, I didn’t work many places in the world, but I don’t think it is like that everywhere. Once you have a training from the UK, the licensing process here is much easier, and we are accepted as a consultant. So we have more privileges to do things, surgery-wise and consultation-wise, because our certifications and qualifications and skills are recognised here.”
The administrative side, she says, was straightforward. “With the help of Allocation Assist, it was very smooth. It didn’t take years or months. All I did was, you were sending the list of documents I needed to upload, and I was doing that. It was very smooth. I didn’t have the hustle.”
Quality of Life in Abu Dhabi
Dr Dover’s clinical commitments are demanding, but she describes her wider life in Abu Dhabi as significantly easier than it was in the UK. “I work six days a week. Yes, I work long hours. Yes, I have to come to hospital for my patients in the middle of the night. I love it, because the rest of my life is pretty easy. It’s a very peaceful, clean, and safe city. There is always someone for something. Dry cleaning, cleaning the house, or cooking. Those kind of things take time, and I was not very keen to spend my spare time on this. I wanted, for instance, to read the new updates in my profession.”
She is full of praise for the people around her. “People are very kind and helpful. They are problem solvers here, not creating problems at all. They try to make your life easy. It’s the same in my hospital. My head of department, my hospital director, and my colleagues are all supportive. They want you to achieve, they want you to practice, and to build your practice pretty quickly.”
The large Turkish community in the UAE has been an unexpected bonus. “There’s a big Turkish population as well in the UAE. When they get to know there’s a consultant working in NMC, they look for where you work and they come to see you. It makes me so happy, because at the end of the day, it’s my native language and my people. When they speak in their native language with a Turkish-speaking doctor, they feel more comfortable, they feel more understood. They can express themselves.”
Bringing Family to the UAE
One of the more personal aspects of Dr Dover’s experience has been having her 73-year-old mother visit her in Abu Dhabi to support her through the first months of relocation. “I didn’t bring my mother here permanently. She just came to support me for the first three months. But even so, it was so easy. Probably people would think that, you know, my mother is 73, and they might hesitate to bring someone. So is she going to be okay? How is the moving process going to be? Is she going to struggle?”
She says the reality was much easier than that. “Moving was so easy. I used an app to see suitable apartments before even coming here. My hospital picked me up from the airport with my mom and arranged accommodation for both of us for the first two weeks until I settled in an apartment. So it was very easy. My mom was very happy.”
A small health issue with her mother also showed her how quick the local healthcare system can be. “We had a little issue with her health condition, and I talked to my hospital. I brought her to the hospital, had a consultation, and pretty quickly she had her treatment. I know it wouldn’t be the same in the UK. We would have to go to the GP and then those kind of things. I felt really safe for my family. If I had a family, I would feel very safe to bring them here.”
Her advice to anyone thinking about relocating with parents is straightforward. “My genuine advice would be they shouldn’t hesitate. The Turkish population I speak to here are very happy. Some people say that we never want to go, but we have to go because there’s no citizenship possibility, but they’re so happy here, and they have children.”
How Allocation Assist Supports Doctors Relocating to the UAE
Relocating internationally as a medical professional means working through several stages, from licensing and job placement to settling into a new healthcare system and helping your family settle in. Allocation Assist streamlines this process with structured support at each stage.
Key Areas of Assistance
- Licensing and regulatory navigation, guiding physicians through credentialing requirements specific to the UAE.
- Role identification and placement, matching specialists with positions aligned to their clinical expertise and career objectives.
- Relocation and family logistics, coordinating practical elements to ensure a seamless move for the entire family.
- Ongoing support, keeping in touch with relocated doctors, following their experiences and achievements in their new roles.
For internationally trained specialists like Dr Dover, that support makes the move into the UAE healthcare system smoother, letting them focus on patient care.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Dr Necmiye Dover’s background and qualifications?
Dr Dover is originally from Turkey, where she completed her initial post-graduate training. In 2015, she moved to the UK and recompleted her training in obstetrics and gynaecology within the NHS, going on to work as a consultant at Gloucester Royal Hospital. Her sub-specialties include laparoscopic surgery, hysteroscopy, colposcopy, cosmetic gynaecology, and advanced labour ward management.
Where does Dr Dover work in the UAE?
She works at NMC Royal Hospital, Abu Dhabi, as a Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist.
Why did Dr Dover relocate to the UAE?
She wanted greater ownership and continuity of care for her patients, and the ability to see, treat, and follow up patients quickly. She also valued the supportive, governance-focused environment offered by NMC and the broader quality of life in Abu Dhabi.
What are her clinical specialties?
Her sub-specialties include laparoscopic surgery, hysteroscopy, colposcopy (diagnosis and treatment of pre-cancerous cervical changes), cosmetic gynaecology, and advanced labour ward management, including difficult deliveries, caesarean sections, and complex operative vaginal deliveries.
How has she found NMC Royal Hospital Abu Dhabi?
She describes NMC as committed to high quality care, safety, quality, and governance, with practice aligned to European and British guidelines. She was actively involved in maternal and neonatal improvement workshops within two weeks of starting, which reinforced her sense of being in the right place.
How easy was the licensing process?
She describes the process as very smooth, largely because of the recognition given to UK certifications and training, and the structured support from Allocation Assist’s licensing, profile, and CV preparation teams. “It didn’t take years or months,” she says.
What is life like in Abu Dhabi?
Dr Dover describes Abu Dhabi as a peaceful, clean, and safe city, with practical support easily accessible for daily tasks like cleaning, cooking, and other household needs. She finds her colleagues and the wider community kind, supportive, and solution-oriented, which allows her to focus on her work and professional development.
What advice does Dr Dover give to doctors hesitating to relocate?
She encourages clinicians not to let hesitations hold them back. She points out that UK qualifications are highly regarded, that returning is always an option, and that the UAE offers a multicultural, hardworking environment in which Western-trained doctors can thrive both professionally and personally.
