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

Swanswell Medical Centre


They became fixated with on-line triage

During lockdown they retreated into a bubble such that patients were treated as if they all had the plague. They became fixated with on-line triage/appointments to the exclusion of any personal contact. If you went to the surgery they had a phone system outside and kept people waiting outside in whatever weather conditions prevailed at the time. Up till then this practice was a model of how to manage a practice but their obsession with excluding patients from any form of personal contact makes us feel like so much rubbish.