This guide provides service users with the necessary support required to conduct an accurate and effective search of a practitioner or body corporate.
Search accuracy
Prior to conducting a search, you must cross-check the practitioner/body corporate details with the relevant regulator website to ensure only the most accurate information is entered.
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Practitioner searches
This includes healthcare professionals, Performers, Superintendent Pharmacists and Directors of a body corporate both non-registered and those who are registered with either the General Pharmaceutical Council or General Optical Council.
Mandatory search criteria
To complete a search on a practitioner, the following information must be known, accurate and entered into the corresponding fields:
- First name
- Last name
- Date of birth [not a mandatory field]
- Professional registration number
- Profession
- Applicant’s Performers List region [used for disclosure of information to regional mailbox]
- National insurance number [for Healthcare Profession Alert Notice searches [not a mandatory field]
First name
It is expected that the practitioner’s name is checked against the relevant regulator’s register.
- Enter the practitioner’s first name.
- Do not enter any middle names
Last name
It is expected that the practitioner’s name is checked against the relevant regulator’s register.
- This field is not case sensitive.
- Enter the practitioner’s full last name, e.g. van Basten, de la Cruz.
- Enter the name accurately avoiding any spelling errors e.g. MacDonald/McDonald, Hussain/Hussein, Thompson/Thomson.
- Enter any apostrophes/hyphens as appropriate e.g. O’Leary, O’Callaghan, Scott-Smith.
- Do not enter any middle names
Date of birth
- A date of birth is not mandatory for practitioner searches but should be included if known to enable a more accurate search.
Professional registration number
- Enter the registration number held by the regulator.
- Do not enter any other alpha or numerical characters which do not form part of the registration number.
- Do not enter any other characters in this field.
- Separate searches must be completed if a practitioner has more than one professional registration number.
- For non-registered Directors, please insert 0000000.
Profession
- Select the practitioner’s profession.
- For non-registered Directors, enter the profession as ‘Other’.
National Insurance number
- Enter the practitioner’s National Insurance number.
Body Corporate searches
Body Corporate name
- This field is not case sensitive.
- Enter the full body corporate name.
- Enter the name accurately avoiding any mistakes.
- Enter any other characters as appropriate e.g. Johnson Optical (Leeds) Ltd.
- Do not use the body corporate trading name.
Registration Number
- For pharmaceutical body corporates, enter the body corporate registration number as held by Companies House.
- For ophthalmic body corporates, enter the registration number held by the professional registration body.
- Enter any applicable alpha characters/hyphens in the registration number e.g. for ophthalmic bodies include the ‘CO’ prefix such as CO-6789.
- Do not enter any other alpha or numeric characters which do not form part of the registration number.
- Do not enter any other characters in this field.
Profession
- Select the body corporate’s profession.
What to expect following submission of your search enquiry
Match found with any NHS Resolution record
Where a match is found with a practitioner or body corporate and an NHS Resolution record, it will be referred to NHS Resolution’s Advice and/or Appeals services for further analysis. Following your search enquiry, a response will be displayed on-screen informing you which of these services your search has been referred to.
An independent manual case review will then be performed against the service records, with the results provided to you by the respective service(s) within three working days. These, as well as any updates, will be sent via email from the following mailboxes:
HPAN team – nhsr.hpanservice@nhs.net
Advice team – nhsr.adviceplr@nhs.net
Appeals team – nhsr.appealsplr@nhs.net
If a match is referred to the Advice team and relevant records are identified to disclose, these will be sent directly to the regional Responsible Officer (RO), and you will receive an email confirming this. You will need to contact the RO directly for access to these documents.
A final system response will be sent to you from check.resolution@nhs.net upon completion of all service reviews informing you that your search is closed.
If you have not heard anything after three days from a given service, please contact the Advice team on nhsr.casesupport@nhs.net and/or Appeals team on nhsr.appeals@nhs.net
No match found with any NHS Resolution record
Where a match is not found with any NHS Resolution record, a response will be displayed on-screen informing you that no relevant record is held for the practitioner or body corporate. No further correspondence will be made following this. Should further clarity be needed, please contact the Appeals service at nhsr.appeals@nhs.net (for PLR) or the Advice service at nhsr.casesupport@nhs.net (for PLR and HPAN).
Unable to process search
Where a search enquiry is not able to be processed, an error message will be displayed for example, ‘Regrettably, your search result cannot be processed right now, please try again later. Please contact the Advice team on nhsr.casesupport@nhs.net and Appeals team on nhsr.appeals@nhs.net if the issue persists’.
Technical support
A dedicated support team are on hand from 9am – 5pm to help you with any technical issues. To request technical assistance, simply raise a support ticket here on our website. Email correspondence from this team will come from support@nhsresolutionit.zendesk.com or occasionally nhsr.servicedesk@nhs.net
Feedback
If you have any queries or comments about the use of this service, please contact the Appeals service at nhsr.appeals@nhs.net (for PLR) or the Advice service at nhsr.casesupport@nhs.net (for PLR and HPAN).
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