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

Washwood Heath Urgent Care Centre


Mis-diagnosis

I used to take my father-in-law, who at the time was 73, and experiencing a lot of pains, to this GP very often. Every time they would take a blood test they just said that if you don’t hear from us, you can assume that everything is fine. He kept going back, but the GP never did anything. His daughter, who is in Germany, then asked him to come over to Germany for medical examination. He had just been seen a GP at Washwood Heath seven days before he travelled. When he was examined in Germany, they found that he had lung and liver cancer, and about nine months to live. They also saw that he had a serious lack of vitamin D and calcium and even this was never mentioned by his GP in UK. Sadly he passed away as the cancer was found too late. We feel that maybe they didn’t take his examinations seriously because of his age. Now everyone in my family is scared and seeking treatment elsewhere.