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

Birmingham Childrens Hospital


Missed diagnosis of liver cancer.

The hospital ignored my daughter's symptoms for the best part of a year, making me feel like a neurotic mother and her feel like she was making her symptoms up. she had long standing liver disease due to a genetic condition but subsequently got cancer of the liver. This was initially picked up on a scan in February 2017 but was missed. we were told in March, there was nothing wrong with her and they would see her again in 2 years time. It was only because I persevered and phoned the professor dealing with my daughter nearly weekly at times (she refused to speak to me until July). Her manner was appalling throughout, even giving me the cancer diagnosis over a telephone. I am extremely concerned that other children will be missed with a cancer diagnosis with how we were treated. We have never received an apology and no investigation has been carried out.