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

College Road Surgery - Kingstanding


Receptionist need more training

Usually really good. They have a patient experience group. We have had an experience where my husband has COPD, he was having problems with his breathing and was struggling. I rang up the surgery and the receptionist said they wouldn't see him face to face but would speak with him over the phone. The doctor eventually rang us up and said he would have sent to him to hospital had he known how severe his symptoms were. The receptionists are not correctly relaying the information to the doctors, there needs to be more training for them on how to navigate people to the right service. It's scary that she made the wrong decision, they need to be on the ball. But they are usually very good.