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

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Original feedback for

Mw Phillips (Sutton Coldfield) Ltd


I had run out of my usual daily medication

I hadn't managed to put in a request for my repeat prescription which meant that I was short of medication for 3 days. The pharmacy is on the same site as the GP and therefore gets most of the prescription requests from the surgery patients - this includes me as I always request that my medication is to be picked up from the chemist. The surgery reception told me to request (from the chemist) an emergency supply for 3 days of my medication to bridge the gap until my prescription would be processed as this was over a weekend and both services are only open on weekdays. The pharmacist refused my request because "it is not life threatening". He did not offer any other advice or tell me about over the counter products that may have helped. My condition may not be life threatening in itself but it has direct implications for my quality of life and ability to carry out daily tasks. He was extremely obstructive.