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

Belchers Lane Surgery


Receptionists poor response based on policy

I rang the surgery for an appointment and was asked to ring the following day in the morning. So as suggested I rang the following day at 8:15am & after giving my details the receptionist said I could not get an appointment as I had previously had an appointment a week ago. I explained that was for another reason. The receptionist said that they have a policy where the GP have to authorise appointments if I have had an appointment last week. I don't see how this could be a policy rule where a patient cannot get an appointment because they saw a GP the previous week for a different reason. What a silly policy (that's if it is part of the policy).