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Raise a concern

Organisation details

Doctor 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.
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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 on the medical register are fit to practise. We don’t investigate doctors 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 doctor give you a different treatment
  • fine a doctor or make a doctor 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 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 may be a risk to patient safety.

Referring a doctor to us

As a responsible officer

If you’re a responsible officer, you should log in to your GMC Connect account to refer a doctor to us.

If you can’t, you should take the following steps before submitting a referral here.

1. Read our referral guidance.
2. Speak to your Employer Liaison Adviser to get their advice about making this referral.
3. Read our guidance on what happens when you refer a doctor to us.

As a medical employer

If you’re a medical employer who isn’t an responsible officer you should read our referral guidance to decide whether to make your referral. In particular, the sections on our threshold for referral and deciding 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 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 the doctor may be a risk to patient safety
  • fraud or dishonesty
  • health concerns impacting a doctor’s performance, including alcohol or drug abuse, and are not being managed
  • 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 another doctor to us

All doctors 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 a doctor 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.

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
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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.
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Have you raised your concern with any other organisation? *

Are other organisations aware of this referral? *

Have you referred this doctor 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 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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Added file(s)

Add doctor

Please identify the doctor(s) you have concerns about. We can only investigate concerns when we’re able to identify the doctor(s).

How to identify your doctor

  • Use their unique GMC reference number. All doctors have a GMC reference number and are obliged to give you this number if you ask for it.
  • You can search our online register using the doctor’s name, filtering by GP or Specialist where necessary.
  • If you can’t identify the doctor on our online register, try searching the website of the organisation where the doctor works.

Added doctor(s)
Doctor not found. Please use Medical Register to find doctor number.
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Adding doctor

Information about the doctor
Tell us the doctor's name

Adding doctor

Information about the doctor
Doctor's place of work
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Further details about the doctor
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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.

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 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) 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 medical opinions.

We might also need to ask other organisations for your medical records to be able to investigate your concern.

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 get back to you within two weeks. We will let you know if we’ll investigate further or if we need more information from you. If we can’t investigate, we’ll explain why.

Thank you for taking 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) 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 medical opinions.

We might also need to ask other organisations for your medical records to be able to investigate your concern.

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 get back to you within two weeks. We will let you know if we’ll investigate further or if we need more information from you. If we can’t investigate, we’ll explain why.

Thank you for taking time to complete this form.

How we use your information

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

  • your employers 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 concern, we may need to ask for other details, such as your medical 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 referral and get back to you within two weeks. We will tell you if we will investigate further or if we need more information from you.

Thank you for taking 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) 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 medical 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 get back to you within two weeks. We will let you know if we’ll investigate further or if we need more information from you. If we can’t investigate, we’ll explain why.

Thank you for taking time to complete this form.

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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.