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

Northwood Medical Centre


My treatment was not handled well

The staff are kind but it took a year to finally get more settled. Initially I was on one treatment. In October of last year this became difficult to find. I then starting using a different drug successfully. That then became impossible to source at my dose. In May of this year, it was replaced with the oral equivalent against my wishes. I had requested a change to be prescribed and my blood sugars were still high. I was told that they don’t double up on injections, so that was impossible and I was given no reason as to why an increase of the medication could not be done for me. The oral substitute does not supress my appetite and therefore does not help to control my sugar levels at all. Instead of trying an increased dose or returning to the injectable, your pharmacist suggested a new injectable, which I reluctantly considered, but did ask again about increased medication. She was unable to find out if this new injectable is suitable for me and referred me to the diabetes service to start insulin. I made a fuss and now am on the new injectable, my blood sugars are coming down and I am more controlled in my eating. A year of uncontrolled blood sugars is not good for my health. Why did the NHS not plan better securing supplies for these injectable for diabetics before allowing the free for all that then ensued? My doctors didn't handle things well either.