If you or someone else is in immediate danger, call 999 now.

For mental health crisis support, call Samaritans free on 116 123 (24/7) or NHS 111 for non-emergency medical advice.

Safeguarding

Patient safety is our first duty

As a CQC-registered clinic, Trimu has the same safeguarding responsibilities as any NHS or private practice. If you’re worried about your own safety, the safety of someone else, or the conduct of anyone connected to Trimu, this page tells you exactly how to reach us.

Contact [email protected]

What It Means

Who safeguarding protects

Safeguarding is the work clinicians do to protect people from harm, abuse, neglect, and exploitation. It applies to everyone we encounter — not just our patients.

Children

Anyone under 18. Although we only treat adults, our duty extends to any child we become aware of who may be at risk of harm — for example, if you mention concerns about a child during a consultation.

Adults at risk

Adults who, because of disability, illness, age, or circumstance, may be unable to protect themselves from abuse or neglect. This includes coercion, financial abuse, and being pressured into treatment by someone else.

You and others

Every patient deserves safe, respectful care. If something feels wrong about your treatment, your interaction with our team, or anything connected to Trimu, we want you to tell us. This is a protected route to be heard.

When To Reach Out

When to contact our safeguarding team

If you’re not sure whether something counts as a safeguarding concern, contact us anyway. It’s our job to make that judgement, not yours.

Concerns about yourself

You’re being pressured into treatment. Someone is controlling your access to medication or your account. You feel unsafe at home. You’re struggling with thoughts of self-harm. You don’t know where else to turn.

Concerns about someone else

A child or adult you know is being abused, neglected, or exploited. Someone is using a Trimu account that isn’t theirs. A relative or friend is hiding their treatment from a partner who is controlling them.

Concerns about Trimu

A clinician, member of staff, or anything about your treatment doesn’t feel right. You believe a prescribing decision was unsafe. You’ve been treated disrespectfully. You suspect someone is misusing our service.

Our Process

What happens when you contact us

A clinician-led, regulated process — not a customer service queue.

Reviewed by a clinician

Every safeguarding email is reviewed by our designated safeguarding lead — a UK-registered clinician with formal safeguarding training. Not by support staff, and never by an algorithm.

Acknowledged within one working day

You’ll hear back from a real person within one working day. Urgent concerns are escalated immediately. If you indicate you or someone else is in immediate danger, we will direct you to emergency services first.

Escalated where appropriate

Where it’s clinically appropriate, we will share information with statutory partners — the local authority safeguarding team, the police, the CQC, or the relevant professional regulator. We do this because the law requires it and because patients deserve protection.

Confidentiality, with limits

We treat safeguarding contacts with the same confidentiality as any clinical information. We won’t share what you tell us beyond the team that needs to know — except where there is a serious risk of harm and we have a legal duty to act.

Anonymous contact is welcome

You don’t need to identify yourself or the person you’re concerned about to raise a concern. Anonymous reports are taken seriously, though we may be more limited in what action we can take if we can’t follow up with you.

No retaliation, ever

Raising a safeguarding concern will never affect your treatment, your account, or your relationship with Trimu. You will be treated with the same respect and care as any patient. This is a protected disclosure.

FAQs

Common safeguarding questions

Yes, please do. It’s our role to assess whether something meets a safeguarding threshold — not yours. You will never be made to feel you’ve wasted our time. If your concern doesn’t fall under safeguarding, we’ll point you to the right team or service.

A complaint is about service quality — slow delivery, billing errors, or unhelpful staff. Safeguarding is about the safety of a person — risk of harm, abuse, neglect, or coercion. If you’re not sure which yours is, email [email protected] and we’ll route it correctly. For straightforward complaints, you can also contact our support team through your account.

Not without careful thought, and never if doing so could put them at greater risk. Where someone is being harmed by another person, telling them we’ve been contacted could escalate the situation. Our safeguarding lead will weigh this carefully and act in the person’s best interest, in line with statutory guidance.

For immediate danger, always call 999. For mental health crisis, Samaritans are free on 116 123, 24 hours a day. For non-emergency medical advice, call NHS 111. For child protection concerns, the NSPCC helpline is 0808 800 5000. To report a regulated healthcare provider, you can contact the Care Quality Commission directly. Your local authority has a dedicated adult safeguarding team that you can find on their website.

Yes. If you have a safeguarding concern that involves Trimu in any way — a family member you believe is using us under coercion, a staff member’s conduct, anything you’ve seen on our service — we want to hear from you whether or not you’ve ever been a patient yourself.

Safeguarding records are retained in line with NHS Records Management Code of Practice and our regulatory obligations under UK GDPR. They’re held securely, accessible only to the safeguarding team and clinicians who need them, and are never used for marketing or commercial purposes.

Get In Touch

Speak to our safeguarding team

Confidential, clinician-led, and free. You’ll hear back within one working day.

[email protected]

Remember: in an emergency, always call 999. Our safeguarding inbox is monitored during working hours and is not a substitute for emergency services.