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

City Hospital


Appalling patient care

I had been to this hospital many a times and the treatment I have received was scary. Me being a professional who works in the NHS was adamant to question each and every step in my treatment. My bilateral dvt during pregnancy left undiagnosed for a month by clinicians at this trust due to lack of experience and left me nearly dead inspire of my raised inflammatory markers they were least bothered. I have more than 3 failed AE admissions and I was so adamant not to leave the AE unless I get my problem sorted. A medicine registrar tried to discharge me in the middle of night and I had to be rude so that he didn't. Next day morning Dr Lee diabetic Consultant came for rounds and immediately sent me for a Doppler and Dr Mark Moss Consultant Radiologist said that he was surprised to see me alive with multiple clots in my legs!!!!!!! How embarrassing is that. I would have nearly lost my babies due to this appalling care from the AE doctors on duty whenever I had failed AE admissions. I also had a phlebotomist with 4yrs of experience in the trust who was trying to open a gold top blood tube , an EDTAand fill the citrate for INR check. Since I am a biomedical scientist by professions I explained to her about the contents of the tube and she informed me that she has been doing this since last 4 years. Shocking!!!I almost lost my faith in my treatment and was in tears . The nurse on duty came to help and assured that an incident reporting would be done and I had a call from Sukhwinder Akhtar Head of Phlebotomy at City Hospitals apologising for the mistake on behalf of her colleague. I so had another incident wherein I was given medical advice by a receptionist from Mallings health at City AE. She advised me to give the blue inhaler to my son how many ever times as you like who who was struggling to breathe. I immediately questioned her and a nurse intervened and my son was straight away taken into paediatric AE and nebuliserd and kept that night in the hospital. If I hadn't questioned her comment and didn't have any knowledge about the use of inhaler I would have had lost my son that night. I hate to go to this hospital but I don't have a choice!!!! Staff in the AE City made fun of me and my husband when I was in with heavy blood loss and I had morphine for my pain and my husband hade to express his concern regarding the unprofessional behaviour of staff. There was no dignity of care from the staff who worked the AE on that day. I don't think they adhered to trust values. I would never ever recommend any one to opt this hospital for treatment and if I get a chance to meet the Chief Executive Mr Toby Lewis in person I would before than happy to give it in writing. Last week I was in Sandwell Hospital with my 2.5 yr old son and we were made to wait in a dirty room for the doctors to see immediately after triage. No one was bothered to check the cleanliness of the room and later a nurse came and cleaned the bed and I mentioned that the room was not clean and nothing was done. He never changed his glove after cleaning the bed and straight away did the sheets which was scary Poor Infection Control training???? Nobody wants to pick any infection from the hospital??