Right to Respond

As part of our commitment to providing an honest and transparent view of health and social care services, Healthwatch Birmingham encourages providers to respond to comments the public have left.

Alongside ensuring providers can have a fair say in discussions about their services, replying to reviews demonstrates evidence of responding to patient feedback for the CQC, who regularly monitor our Feedback Centre. It is also an effective way to recruit service users for any wider engagement work at your organisation.

Guidelines for provider responses:

  • Keep language appropriate and civil
  • Remain professional and treat people’s comments fairly
  • Engage with the content of the review by addressing specific points and avoid cut and pasting a standard response
  • Don’t disclose the service user’s personal details or any potentially identifying information
  • Where appropriate leave organisational contact details e.g PALS or patient engagement teams for people to get further information

Remember: your response will be seen by everyone who uses the Feedback Centre, not just the original reviewer. All responses are moderated in accordance with our moderation policy.

For full terms and conditions, including a guide to how right to reply works for service providers download this guide.

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Original feedback for

Bath Row Medical Practice, Attwood Green Health Centre


Can never get an appointment unless...

My partner is disabled and has trouble with mobility, he is also hard of hearing and virtually deaf in one ear, and the pain medication he is on affects his memory and the ability to process what he hears accurately. As a result, when he needs to see a Doctor he can spend ages on the phone in a queue only to be told that there are no appointments left for that day and to call again at 8am the following morning. This is a huge issue as again, because of his medication, he often doesn't wake up until closer to lunchtime and is then extremely groggy for an hour, so any chance of making an appointment is almost zero. And all appointments tend to be callbacks, and again he either cannot hear the doctor, doesn't understand what is being said, and because of his typical male pride, he won't ask for something to be repeated. Now here is the really annoying thing. We can call at 8am to make an appointment only to be told that there are none available and to call back the following day. This happened recently when I had to call the paramedics out in the early hours of the morning because my partner had collapsed and was struggling to breathe. They were here within minutes I'm pleased to say, and they stayed for several hours checking him over, giving him oxygen, calming him down and getting him relaxed again. I was told to call the surgery as soon as they opened and tell them what had happened and that the paramedics had insisted he was seen by a GP as a mater of urgency that day, and to tell the surgery that when I was making the appointment. They even wrote this down on the discharge form so I had proof. As per usual, I got the same answer, no appointments, call tomorrow. So, I do what I always do, walk round to his surgery, get to the reception desk and utter the magic words "I'm a carer for one of your patients and it is urgent that I get an appointment/call back with a GP today." Without fail, I get a same day appointment; a call back if IO can take and listen in on the call, and a face to face if he needs to actually talk face to face with the GP. It really shouldn't matter whether I'm his carer or not, but that magic word "Carer" has always gotten a different level of service.