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

St Heliers Medical Practice


Calls answered by computerised message

Calls answered by computerised message urging use of their website. Voice eventually tells you where you are in the queue ( I've been No. 12 a few times and I hang up ( local landline calls cost up to 16p per minute!) If you do eventually get through to Reception to request a doctor's phone appointment you then get put through to the "Clinical Support Team". So instead of speaking to a doctor who is familiar with your health issues you speak to someone who is not. That's assuming that the phone is answered at all!. When I recently asked one of the doctors when they might return to pre-Pandemic service I was told "not for the foreseeable future and all appointments may remain initially as doctor phone appointments"!