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


Used to be a good surgery

Used to be a good surgery. Can understand changing practices due to covid but they show no sign of returning to online bookings even for a phone call. We have logged over 150 attempts most times when calling the surgery to book an appointment only to be told to try the next day. When you have a telephone appointment they can’t give an approximate time for the call. This makes it impossible for people who have continued to work during the pandemic to access their services. They seem to assume patients are at home all day and it is unfair on those who have to work. They should review this and at least offer a rough idea for the call, surely they can schedule them if they have reduced face to face appointments? A return to online booking for telephone appointments would we welcomed too.