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

Boots Pharmacy - High Street Harborne


Randomly closed even during store opening hours

I arrived to collect my prescription (having deliberately waited an extra couple of days after it was meant to be ready to ensure I would only need to make one trip), to find a hand-written sign on the glass screen of the pharmacy section telling me it would be closed between 1.30 and 2.30 due to staff shortages. It was 1.40 at the time, so I decided I would return at a different time the following day. Today I arrived at 3.45 and queued up along with other people. I got to the front of the queue to be told that actually they were now closed until 4.30. I was a little disappointed as it takes me half an hour to walk there and I suffer from sciatica as well as increasingly painful hip joints. I pointed out that they had been closed between 1.30 and 2.30 the day before... and the assistant merely pointed to the new handwritten sign on the screen. I asked when this had been put up and was told 'half an hour ago, sorry for the inconvenience, you can wait.' I returned home without my meds once more. So having spent a total of 2 hours walking back and forth over two days, I still didn't manage to collect my prescription. Not good enough really. How are customers supposed to second-guess what times the pharmacy might actually be open?