Practising across several sites: one registered office, several practices

You open a second practice, you split your week between two towns, or you join a health centre while keeping your long-standing practice site. One question then comes up: do you need as many registered offices as you have practices? The answer is no. Your company has only one registered office, and that office coexists without difficulty with several practice sites. You do need to distinguish two separate levels, that of the company's registered office and that of your care sites.

The company's registered office and your practice sites, two distinct levels

The registered office is the company's administrative address. It sets its administrative attachment and the departmental council of the Ordre with jurisdiction over it. Your practices follow a different logic: wherever they are located, each one follows its own professional-body rules. In other words, a single registered office can perfectly coexist with two, three practices or more, located in different towns.

This office does not have to be one of your practices. It can be a dedicated address, stable and clear on your documents as well as in the register, distinct from all your care sites. This is the first benefit of a clear set-up: the office stays fixed and serves as the point of attachment for the company, while your practice sites can change as your activity develops. Opening a new practice, closing one or relocating one does not call the office into question, and it remains unchanged. What remains is how to declare these sites, and on this point the rules differ according to your profession.

Doctors: a prior declaration, two months in advance

The doctor practises on the basis of a usual professional residence. Since 2019, practising at one or more separate sites falls under a declaratory regime: you send a prior declaration to the departmental council, at least two months in advance, with the Ordre holding a right of objection during that period. The former criterion of insufficient care provision, which once governed practising at several sites, has disappeared for the declaration in principle.

This framework does not depend on the form under which you practise: it applies whether you practise in your own name, within a SCP or a SEL. Choosing a single registered office for your company therefore has no effect on these declarations. They remain attached to each of your practice sites, and not to the company's administrative address. The registered office settles the attachment of the structure; declaring the sites remains a professional-body act in its own right.

Medical auxiliaries: main practice and secondary practice

Medical auxiliaries, whether nurses, physiotherapists, podiatrists or speech and language therapists, work from a main practice. Alongside this main practice, you may open a secondary practice on declaration to the Ordre. The process is therefore simple for this first additional site.

The logic changes beyond that. An additional site, on top of the main practice and the secondary practice, requires an authorisation justified by insufficient care provision in the area concerned. The rule is graduated: declaration for the secondary practice, justified authorisation to go further. Here too, this gradation is independent of your company's registered office: it is assessed site by site, in the light of the care needs of the territory.

Changing address: informing the Ordre

Whether you transfer your company's registered office, relocate a practice or close one, one principle stays constant: any change of professional address must be notified to the Ordre, within the time limits it sets. This duty to inform applies to each of your practice sites, independently of the administrative life of the company. It is therefore wise to handle, in parallel, the formalities linked to the registered office and those linked to your practices, so that no address remains unknown to the Ordre.

Where does the business address fit in?

Giving your company a business address means providing it with a stable registered-office address, single and distinct from your practices. The benefit is clear when you practise across several sites: the office stays fixed, identical on all your documents, even when your care sites move or multiply. You thus avoid revising the company's address each time your organisation changes. That is the purpose of a business address for healthcare professionals.

One limit must stay clear. The business address provides the company's registered office, nothing more. It never replaces the declarations of your practice sites, which still have to be made to the Ordre according to the rules specific to your profession. Administrative address on one side, care sites on the other: the two complement each other, they do not replace each other. A well-kept registered office simplifies the running of the company; it does not exempt you from any professional-body formality.

Key points to remember

• Your company has only one registered office, which coexists without difficulty with several practices, located if need be in different towns.
• The registered office sets the company's administrative attachment and the departmental council of the Ordre with jurisdiction over it; each practice follows its own professional-body rules.
• Doctors: practising at one or more separate sites has, since 2019, come under a prior declaration to the departmental council, at least two months in advance, with a right of objection for the Ordre; the former criterion of insufficient care provision has disappeared for the declaration in principle.
• Doctors: this regime is the same in your own name, in a SCP or in a SEL.
• Medical auxiliaries: a secondary practice is opened on declaration to the Ordre; a further additional site requires a justified authorisation based on insufficient care provision.
• Any change of professional address is notified to the Ordre within the time limits it sets.
• The business address provides the company's single registered office; it does not replace the declarations of the practice sites.

Sources as at 20 September 2026: French public health code (practising at separate sites, declaratory regime since 2019); professional-body rules for medical auxiliaries. Domisiège, business domiciliation in Tours, backed by the Épiphyse Conseil firm. This article gives general guidance and does not replace a review of your situation.