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Raise a concern

Organisation details

Doctor, physician associate or anaesthesia associate details

Patient details

Incident details

Declarations

Your concern

Thank you for raising your concern. You can find a copy below for your records.

We'll review your concern and let you know if we can investigate. We aim to do this within 10 working days, but will let you know if we need longer.

Let us know how you found the process of raising a concern. Your feedback will help us to make improvements.

You can also read about our investigation process and the support we can offer if we decide to investigate;.

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Before you start

This tool is for people who want to raise a concern about a doctor, physician associate, or anaesthesia associate. Our concern form is available in Welsh (Cymraeg).
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Tell us who you are

Depending on who you are, we will need different information to assess your concern.
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When you should raise a concern with us

Our job is to make sure that doctors, physician associates and anaesthesia associates on the register are fit to practise. We don’t investigate people for making mistakes unless we think these mistakes are part of a pattern of unsafe behaviour.

We can’t:

  • explain treatment to you
  • make a registrant give you a different treatment
  • fine a registrant or make them apologise
  • intervene in disputes over fees or medical records.

If you want to complain about your treatment or the standard of service you’ve received, you should first take this up with the organisation who provided treatment. If you’re not satisfied with the response of the organisation, you should follow national complaints procedures.

If you think a doctor, physician associate or anaesthesia associate has behaved in a way that means they pose a risk to patient safety, you should raise your concern with us.

These concerns could include:

  • violence, sexual assault or indecency
  • a serious criminal offence
  • abuse of professional position (eg an improper sexual relationship with a patient)
  • discrimination against patients, colleagues and others
  • a standard of treatment that suggests the doctor, physician associate or anaesthesia associate may be a risk to patient safety.

Referring a doctor, physician associate or anaesthesia associate to us

Referring a doctor as a responsible officer

If you’re a responsible officer (RO):

1. Speak to your Employer Liaison Adviser (ELA) for advice about making a referral.
2. Log in to your GMC Connect account to make a referral.
3. If you can’t access GMC Connect, complete the RO referral form and email it to practise@gmc-uk.org copy your ELA into the email.
4. If the concern is serious and urgent, and completing the form could delay action to protect the public, email practise@gmc-uk.org immediately with as much detail as possible, and copy your ELA into the email.

For more information, read: Deciding whether to refer a matter to the GMC (Doctors) - Guidance for Responsible Officers and guidance on what happens when you refer someone to us.

Referring a doctor as a medical employer

If you’re a medical employer, who isn’t an RO, and you are referring a doctor:

1. Speak to the doctor's RO. You can find the RO's name on the doctor's record on the medical register.
2. Read Deciding whether to refer a matter to the GMC (Doctors) - Guidance for Employers to decide whether to make a referral.

Referring a physician associate or anaesthesia associate as a medical employer

If you’re a medical employer referring a physician associate or anaesthesia associate:

1. Read Deciding whether to refer a matter to the GMC (PAs and AAs) - Guidance for Employers to decide whether to make a referral.

When you should raise a concern with us

If you’re acting in an official capacity raising this concern, it should be because the doctor’s, physician associate's or anaesthesia associate's behaviour means they could pose a risk to patient safety or public confidence in the medical profession.

This could be because of:

  • violence, sexual assault or indecency
  • a serious criminal offence
  • abuse of professional position, (eg an improper sexual relationship with a patient)
  • discrimination against patients, colleagues and others
  • a standard of treatment that suggests they may be a risk to patient safety
  • fraud or dishonesty
  • health concerns impacting an individual's performance, including alcohol or drug abuse, and are not being managed
  • a doctor working without a licence.

When you should refer yourself to us

You may want to speak to a medical defence organisation to get their advice about whether you should refer yourself to us.

You need to refer yourself to us if you:

• may pose a risk to patients because you are not receiving or complying with the necessary treatment for a health condition (including alcohol or drug dependency) or do not have arrangements in place to manage your practice safely while you recover.

• have been charged with or found guilty of a criminal offence or have accepted a caution.

• have been sanctioned or criticised by another regulatory body, in the UK or abroad.

If you’d like to discuss whether you should refer yourself to us, you can contact us.

Referring a doctor, physician associate or anaesthesia associate to us

All doctors, physician associates and anaesthesia associates have a duty to raise concerns when patient safety is being compromised.This could be due to the practice of colleagues or the systems, policies and procedures in the organisations in which they work.

If you’re not sure whether to refer someone to us, read our guidance on raising and acting on concerns. Or you can call us on 0161 923 6602 to discuss your concern.

Protecting whistleblowers

We’re committed to protecting whistleblowers. We have several ways to support those who raise concerns about co-workers or the systems they work in. Read our speaking up page for more information.

If you want to raise a concern confidentially, you can call our confidential helpline on 0161 923 6399, Monday to Friday, 9 am – 5 pm.
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Your name and contact details

Enter your contact details so that we can get in touch with you about your concern.
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Your address
Please refine your address search or choose to enter address manually
Unable to return addresses, please enter address manually
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Protected characteristics

How we use your diversity data

We’re committed to treating everyone fairly. We ask about age, ethnicity, disability and gender. This is so we can understand how our processes affect different groups of people. This information isn’t shared with other organisations or used for any other purpose.

The only exception is your date of birth, which we may need to share with another organisation if you are a patient and we need your medical records to investigate your concern.
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Have you raised your concern with any other organisation? *

Are other organisations aware of this referral? *

Have you referred this individual to other organisations? *

Are other organisations aware of the reason for your self referral? *

Have you raised your concerns with other organisations? *
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Other organisations

Please tell us which organisations you’ve raised your concern with already.

Other organisations

Please tell us which organisations are aware of this referral.

Other organisations

Please tell us which organisations you’ve referred the doctor, physician associate or anesthaesia associate to already.

Other organisations

Please tell us which organisations are aware of the reason for your self-referral.

Other organisations

Please tell us which organisations you’ve raised your concerns with already.

Added organisation(s)

Correspondence

If you have electronic copies of correspondence with these organisations, attach them below. This will help us to act quickly.

Other Organisations

Please give us details about the organisation and their response.

Address

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Unable to return addresses, please enter address manually
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Added file(s)

How to identify your doctor, physician associate or anesthesia associate

Please identify the doctor(s), physician associate(s) or anaesthesia associate(s) you have concerns about. We can only investigate concerns when we’re able to identify the person registered with us. To do this;

  • Use their unique GMC reference number. All people registered with us have a GMC reference number and are obliged to give you this number if you ask for it.
  • You can search the registers using;
    • The doctor's name or GMC reference number, filtering by GP or Specialist where necessary
    • The physician associate's name or GMC reference number
    • The anaesthesia associate's name or GMC reference number
  • If you can’t identify the doctor, physician associate or anaesthesia associate on our registers, try searching the website of the organisation where they work.

Added doctor(s),  physician associate(s) or anaesthesia associate(s)
No record found. Please use the registers to find a GMC reference number.
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Adding doctor, physician associate or anaesthesia associate

Information about the doctor, physician associate or anaesthesia associate
Tell us the doctor's name, physician associate's or anaesthesia associate's name

Adding doctor, physician associate or anaesthesia associate

Information about the doctor, physician associate or anaesthesia associate
Doctor's, physician associate's or anaesthesia associate's place of work
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Unable to return addresses, please enter address manually
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Further details about the doctor, physician associate or anaesthesia associate
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Who are you raising this for?

You've told us that you're raising this concern on behalf of someone else. Please tell us who this is.

Patient's name
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Details of your concern

Your referral
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Details of your concern

If you want to add attachments to support your concerns, you can do that here. Examples could include medical documents, screenshots including dates and times where applicable, website links, recordings etc.

Your referral

Please also include any documentation that supports your referral. This could include:

  • documents from internal investigations or disciplinary actions
  • complaint letters
  • anonymised medical records with any relevant consent forms from patients
  • any documents that relate to any patient safety concerns the doctor, physician associate or anaesthesia associate has raised (if applicable).

Your self referral

If you want to add attachments to support your concerns, you can do that here.

Added file(s)
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Details of your concern

Your self-referral

Your referral
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How we use your information

If we decide to investigate, we usually share details of your concern with:

  • the doctor(s), physician associate(s) or anaesthesia associate(s) concerned
  • their employers and others responsible for their day-to-day performance
  • other healthcare regulators or organisations that could help our investigation
  • independent experts that we may use to provide expert opinions.

We might need to ask other organisations for the relevant medical records to be able to investigate your concern. If we do, we’ll share the patient’s name and date of birth with them so that they can provide us with these records.

We need to use your information like this to investigate but if you don’t want us to, let us know why. We may still use your information in the interests of protecting the public, but we’ll let you know first.

What happens next?

When you submit this form, your concern will be sent to us.

We'll review your concern and aim to get back to you as soon as possible. Please note that it could take longer for us to respond to your complaint depending on our current volumes.

Once we have considered your concerns, we'll let you know if we can investigate further or if we need more information from you. If we can't investigate, we'll explain why.

Thank you for your patience and for taking the time to complete this form.

How we use your information

If we decide to investigate, we usually share details of your concern with:

  • the doctor(s), physician associate(s) or anaesthesia associate(s) concerned
  • their employers and others responsible for their day-to-day performance
  • other healthcare regulators or organisations that could help our investigation
  • independent experts that we may use to provide expert opinions.

We need to use your information like this to investigate but if you don’t want us to, let us know why. We may still use your information in the interests of protecting the public, but we’ll let you know first.

What happens next?

When you submit this form, your concern will be sent to us.

We'll review your concern and aim to get back to you as soon as possible. Please note that it could take longer for us to respond to your complaint depending on our current volumes.

Once we have considered your concerns, we'll let you know if we can investigate further or if we need more information from you. If we can't investigate, we'll explain why.

Thank you for your patience and for taking the time to complete this form.

How we use your information

If we decide to investigate, we usually share your details with several people:

  • your employer(s) and others responsible for your day-to-day performance
  • other healthcare regulators or organisations that could help our investigation.

If you’ve referred yourself because of a risk to patients arising from a health condition, we may need to ask for other information relating to your health.

 

We need to use your information like this to help us understand the impact of your health condition. But if you don’t want us to, let us know why. We may still need to use your information in the interests of protecting the public, but we’ll let you know first.

What happens next?

When you submit this form, your concern will be sent to us.

We'll review your concern and aim to get back to you as soon as possible. Please note that it could take longer for us to respond to your complaint depending on our current volumes.

Once we have considered your concerns, we'll let you know if we can investigate further or if we need more information from you. If we can't investigate, we'll explain why.

Thank you for your patience and for taking the time to complete this form.

How we use your information

If we decide to investigate, we usually share details of your referral with:

  • the doctor(s), physician associate(s) or anaesthesia associate(s) concerned
  • their employers and others responsible for their day-to-day performance
  • other healthcare regulators or organisations that could help our investigation
  • independent experts that we may use to provide expert opinions
  • patients/relevant members of the public who may be involved.

We may not be able to investigate if we can’t share your information. But if you don’t want us to, let us know why. We may still use your information in the interests of protecting the public, but we’ll let you know first.

What happens next?

When you submit this form, your concern will be sent to us.

We'll review your concern and aim to get back to you as soon as possible. Please note that it could take longer for us to respond to your complaint depending on our current volumes.

Once we have considered your concerns, we'll let you know if we can investigate further or if we need more information from you. If we can't investigate, we'll explain why.

Thank you for your patience and for taking the time to complete this form.

Save your form

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So you can securely access your saved form again, please provide the following details. A reference number and instructions will be emailed to the email address you provided in the form. The following details are required.

Save your form

Your form is not submitted. You can take up to 30 days to complete and submit your form from the date it is first saved.

So you can securely access your saved form again, please provide the following details. A reference number and instructions will be emailed to the email address you provided in the form. The following details are required.

Save your form

Your form is not submitted. You can take up to 30 days to complete and submit your form from the date it is first saved.

So you can securely access your saved form again, please provide the following details. A reference number and instructions will be emailed to the email address you provided in the form. The following details are required.

Save your form

Your form is not submitted. You can take up to 30 days to complete and submit your form from the date it is first saved.

So you can securely access your saved form again, please provide the following details. A reference number and instructions will be emailed to the email address you provided in the form. The following details are required.
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Save your form

Your form is not submitted. You can take up to 30 days to complete and submit your form from the date it is first saved.

So you can securely access your saved form again, please provide the following details. A reference number and instructions will be emailed to the email address you provided in the form. The following details are required.