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

The Swan Medical Centre


Very inefficient staff

Absolutely appalling. I have used this practice for over 50 years and have found it very good in all that time, however after my experience this week I have changed my mind. Having been in pain all weekend I called the surgery on Monday morning 8.30am to make an appointment to see my doctor and was greeted with message saying Swan Medical has new service that will allow you to contact a GP using AccuRx online. As I didn’t have a clue what that was I hung on for 20 minutes to speak to receptionist. I asked for urgent appointment to be told I must do it on line, I told her I don’t have a computer, she insisted I do it on line and she would send a text message and told me to press blue square and Doctor would call me that day. I did as she said and the message on there was all about COVID-19. I had no idea how to get out of that and waited all day for Doctor to call. At 4pm I called the surgery and asked if I was on doctor’s list, she said No. I told her what happened when I spoke to receptionist in morning and she asked if she had explained to me what to do; to which I answered she told me to press blue square! This girl was really helpful, explained the procedure for future use and made booking for me on Thursday 3rd December. One hour later I got another text message from Swan Medical saying my doctor would call me on Wednesday. Instead of a call from Doctor I got another text message asking me to come to surgery at 9.50 Thursday morning, which I did, I sat in waiting room for half an hour, then asked if I was going to see doctor to be told doctor was calling my home and I wasn’t there!!! I was very angry now and demanded to see my doctor. My doctor apologised on behalf of the very inefficient staff and treated me with respect and dignity, when I told her the saga.