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

Handsworth Wood Medical Centre


Terrible

It's really terrible, can't get an appointment, you call and have to wait for an hour and there are no appointments. They have started using this system where you go to the surgery to wait. People go as early as 6:30am and there is a queue and you can still be told there are no appointments. A lot of the elders have given up getting appointments there because they can't travel there. There is no communication with patients, telling us they are changing or making changes. They offer online bookings but that is not accessible to everyone. When you finally do see a doctor, you can only discuss one thing. They cut you off if you start talking about another discussion. We are considering going private for my dad because he has conditions that when they flare up, they need to see him.