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

* Required fields

Original feedback for

City Hospital


Staff try their best in poor conditions

Been a patient here for a long time under immunology. Unfortunately they have run out of treatment options for my condition, but the staff have tried to get me the very latest treatments. My consultant is excellent, but sometimes has only a very short time to see me in. The facilities are very dated, and I've had to visit my consultant in some terrible offices. For a while the clinic was based in the rooms about the maternity hospital. I cannot have a baby because of risk of birth defects with my medications, and it was incredibly upsetting to have to walk through the maternity reception each time to get to the clinic. The waiting area seemed to be the place where all broken and odd chairs in the hospital came to retire. They've now moved to other space in the hospital, but it's all very run down.