Making a referral to us

If you think there is a risk that the nurse, midwife or nursing associate may pose to patients and the public, you should make us aware immediately.

In some serious cases, it may be necessary for us to act quickly to stop them from working or restrict their practice.

Even if the risk is not immediate, please raise your concern as soon as possible with the nurse, midwife or nursing associate’s employer if applicable. There is no time limit, but the longer ago an incident took place, the more difficult it is to investigate.

We can’t:

• make a nurse, midwife or nursing associate apologise to you
• investigate general concerns about the nurse, midwife or nursing associate’s place of work.

We can consider concerns that are serious enough to raise doubts about whether the nurse, midwife or nursing associate should be allowed to continue to practise as a registered professional, either with some form of restriction on their practice, or at all. Examples of allegations that we can investigate include:

• abuse of professional position, for example an improper sexual relationship with a patient or service user, discrimination against patients and colleagues
• serious or repeated mistakes in patient care
• serious criminal offences
• violence
• dishonesty or fraud
• serious breaches of patient confidentiality
• serious concerns about a nurse, midwife or nursing associate’s knowledge of the English language.

When we investigate, we consider:

• whether the concerns are serious enough to raise concern about a nurse, midwife or nursing associate’s fitness to practise
• whether we can get evidence
• whether the nurse, midwife or nursing associate has addressed the concerns.

Why we might not investigate

If a concern doesn't suggest that their practice should be restricted, we will not investigate. We understand that sometimes people can make mistakes.

Making a mistake doesn’t necessarily mean a they should be stopped from working. When we look at a concern we consider whether it was a one-off event, how serious it was, how much they have reflected on what happened and what they have done since to learn from the mistake.

For employer referrals

Our Employer Link Service provides advice and guidance for employers thinking of making a referral to the NMC because of a concern about a nurse, midwife or nursing associate's fitness to practise.

Find out more about our Employer Link Service

Third party referrals

The employer might be able to deal with the concern themselves and usually more quickly.

They should also be able to help you decide if we need to be involved. They may choose to involve us themselves. If the employer decides to refer the case to us, they can send us all the information from their investigation, which will speed up the process. If you don’t agree with their decision, you can still involve us later.
If for any reason you have concerns about complaining to the employer you can report the matter to us without complaining first to the employer.

For self-referrals

If you’re a nurse, midwife or nursing associate who needs to make a self-referral to us it’s likely that we'll engage your employer when we investigate your referral. If you’ve not already discussed the issue you’d like to refer to us with your employer, then you should consider to doing so.