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

Callum Lodge Specialist Psychotherapies Service


A traumatic experience by an autistic patient

I was treated intensively at the service for the best part of 3 years altogether (2015-2018) which resulted in a mental breakdown and subsequently a severe PTSD. During all that time, the two therapists I saw did not notice my then undiagnosed autism. Three months ago in May 2019, I was diagnosed with autism by a specialist multidisciplinary team externally as the trust does not diagnose autism. I feel deeply scarred by the service and live in constant panic attacks associated with random memories from my treatment. During my breakdown in 2016 I became almost nonverbal as my autism about which I didn't know at the time has worsened because of my clinical experience. I could also hardly walk and kept experiencing physical injuries as a result of my worsened coordination skills. No clinician at the service suspected my autism and I returned for more treatment by a second therapist there. I feel even more scared from the subsequent therapy there by the complete breakdown in communication with the therapist who yet again did not realise that I am autistic and that communication has a different meaning to me. It is essential to incorporate this element in an intensive transformative psychotherapy to not lead to a severe trauma and worsen their condition. My intensive psychological treatment ended unsuccessfully and left me feeling deeply scarred and traumatised. I do not recommend this service to any autistic people and advise caution when proceeding to any other patients.