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

Eaton Wood Medical Centre


Struggling to get an emergency appointment

I rang the doctors at 8am, must have redialed at least 20 times and it was engaged every time. It was coming up to 8:10am when I finally got into the telephone queue, where there were 40+ people in front of me. I managed to speak to a receptionist at the surgery and tried to explain to her that I'd spoken to both NHS 111 and a doctor from the Badger Clinic who had told me to call and make an appointment - they didn't want to know. She said she just dealt with test results and admin enquiries. I then received a text message to say make an emergency appointment with a female doctor. I rang back but they said they couldn't do anything after 6pm. The next day I called back and the receptionist took my details and it flagged up on the system and said she couldn't understand why they had sent me a text when they should have arranged an appointment for me. I later received a phone call from a doctor who said I had a urine infection and prescribed me antibiotics and told me to bring in a urine sample within the next 10-15 days regardless of my symptoms not pointing to an infection.