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.

Your reply

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Original feedback for

Birmingham Childrens Hospital


Prolonged wait in A&E

I attempted to have my daughter seen at BCH A&E on two occasions, Saturday and Monday. We were attending because she needed an X-ray for suspected broken finger. She was triaged and it was agreed she needed X-ray but wouldn’t be sent to X-ray without seeing doctor. We waited for two hours on the Saturday only to be told (with no apology and rather aggressively) that it would be a further five hour wait ‘at least’. Assuming this was an exceptionally busy day I elected to strap her finger and return on Monday morning. I was shocked to be informed that they were still predicting a 5 hour wait at minimum. I have no problem waiting for such services but feel the triage system for hospital is old fashioned and needs to have less time consuming pathways. We elected to attend a different A&E at city hospital where we were triaged and send straight to X-ray, saw a doctor and returned home within one hour.