Comments and complaints

The General Medical Council is the independent regulator for doctors in the UK. Our statutory purpose is to protect, promote and maintain the health and safety of the public by ensuring proper standards in the practice of medicine.

We value comments and complaints about the services we provide. Your views are important. They help us to understand what works well and which services or procedures can be improved.

In this section

1. 1. Making a complaint about a doctor

2. 2. Making a complaint about a GMC decision

3. 3. Making a complaint about the services we provide

4. 4. General feedback and comments about GMC services

1. Making a complaint about a doctor

If you want to complain about a doctor, please read the Making a complaint section in the Concerns about doctors section of our website or speak to one of our advisers on 0161 923 6602.

2. Making a complaint about a GMC decision

If your complaint is about a decision where an appeal process is set out in law, we will not treat it as a complaint about our service. Examples of a decision are

A decision not to investigate a complaint about a doctor, or not to refer a doctor to a public hearing following an investigation

In these cases, you should talk to an investigations officer.

A decision on an application for registration

If you are unhappy with the outcome of your application for registration, you should talk to the application adviser or consider taking legal advice.

Our handling of your request for information under the Data Protection Act or Freedom of Information Act

If you are unhappy with the way in which we have dealt with your Data Protection request or Freedom of Information request, please read the Accessing information part of our website or speak to the person who dealt with your request.

 

3. Making a complaint about the services we provide

We aim for the highest standards of service but recognise that sometimes things go wrong. We therefore consider very seriously all complaints about the standard of service we have provided.

Our complaints process

Step 1: Try to resolve your complaint with the person or team you have been dealing with

You should first try to resolve your complaint with the person or team you have been dealing with. It is important that you go through this process before you escalate your complaint further.

The contact details for the teams and directorates at the GMC are provided on the Contact us page.

If you are not sure which team or directorate you were dealing with, please call our Contact centre on 0161 923 6602 and they will be happy to help you.

Step 2: If you have taken step 1 and the complaint is still unresolved

If your complaint remains unresolved, you can then contact our Customer Service Manager by email, fax, e-mail or in writing. Please tell the Customer Service Manager:

• The names of the people you have been dealing with.
• Any reference numbers we have given you. 
• Your GMC reference number, if you are a doctor. 
• What you think has gone wrong.
• Why you are dissatisfied with the handling of your complaint. 
• What you think we should do to put things right.

Our Customer Service Manager will acknowledge your complaint. We might ask the relevant team to try again to resolve your complaint. If we do, they will aim to reply within 10 working days but will let you know if they can't.

Otherwise, we will ask a member of our senior management team to consider your complaint. We will aim to reply within 10 working days but will let you know if we can't. This is the final stage of our complaints procedure.

Step 3: If you still disagree

Our Customer Service Manager will acknowledge any further correspondence about your complaint but, unless it raises significant new issues, we will not send further replies.

Ways in which you can complain, and accessibility information

You can comment or complain by email, fax or in writing.

We are happy to receive comments or complaints through an advocate or representative acting on your behalf. We will ask you to confirm that you are happy for that person to act for you. We will deal with them directly until the investigation into your complaint is completed. You can tell us at any stage if you no longer want the person to act for you.

We are committed to making our website accessible to everyone. Our website is BrowseAloud enabled. You can find out more about BrowseAloud and accessibility by reading our Web accessibility statement.

Information about our complaints procedure can be made available on request in Braille, on audio cassette tape, on disk, in large print and in other languages.

Please contact our Customer Service Manager if you need information in an alternative language or format. The Customer Service Manager may ask you some questions about your preferred method of communication. This is to ensure that any information we provide is accessible and meets your requirements.

Wherever possible, we will provide the information in the format or language you require during all stages of the complaints process.

Our promise to you

We aim to provide the highest standard of service and to have a complaints procedure which:

• Is easily accessible and well publicised.
• Is simple and easy to understand.
• Allows us to act quickly, with clear timescales for action. 
• Keeps you informed of progress.
• Is fair, objective and free from discrimination. 
• Maintains your and our staff's confidentiality. 
• Treats everyone politely and with dignity. 
• Answers all the points and issues and provides appropriate redress.

We recognise that sometimes we do not provide the standard of service that we would like. When things go wrong, we will acknowledge our mistakes, put things right and learn from your experience to improve our services.

We will acknowledge your complaint and answer any concerns as quickly as we can, and within 10 working days, wherever possible. We will let you know if it will take longer.

Your responsibility

In return, we expect you to treat our staff politely and with respect. We do not expect our staff to tolerate abusive, offensive or threatening behaviour.
We will:

• Tell you when you behaviour is unacceptable. 
• Ask you to change it. 
• Consider restricting your contact with our staff, if the behaviour continues. For example, by asking you to contact us only by correspondence, to contact only a named member of staff, or by restricting telephone calls to specified days and times. 
• Consider ending contact, if you continue to behave in an unacceptable way. 
• In extreme cases, consider reporting matters to the police if your behaviour threatens the safety and welfare of our staff.

4. General feedback and comments about GMC services

If you would like to send comments on any aspect of our work, you can send them to our Customer Service Manager:

Customer Service Manager
General Medical Council
3 Hardman Street
Manchester
M3 3AW

Fax: 0845 357 0025

Email: customerservicemanager@gmc-uk.org

The Customer Service Manager will acknowledge your comments. We will aim to reply within 10 working days but will let you know if it will take longer.

Alternatively you can call the Contact centre on 0161 923 6602 who can advise you.