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.

Your reply

* Required fields

Original feedback for

Springfield Surgery


I felt listened to and supported by my GP

I have complex care needs and health issues. What might be a simple problem that can wait for a few days for someone else, could be life threatening for me. Likewise, what could be a sign of a heart attack or stroke in someone else is routine for me, and rushing to A&E constantly would cause significant deterioration in my health, and waste NHS resources, not to mention drain my limited energy and doctors time doing unnecessary referrals for specialist testing or to my specialist team "just in case", which is what happens after most A&E visits. I also have medical trauma and I hate medical appointments, so I only go if I'm genuinely concerned. My GP treats me appropriately and doesn't panic at my complex health history or patronise me, he knows if I've made the time to come into the surgery then either I or my care team are really concerned. When I last made a request for an appointment, I suspected my symptoms were caused by extreme stress, but wanted to be checked as they had been getting worse and I had some new ones that didn't seem normal. As I have previously suffered a lot of medical gaslighting that turned out to be serious issues that were ignored, I was worried this could happen again, but they phoned me up and asked me to come in that day. My GP took the time to listen to me and make sure that he understood what was going on in my life, as well as my physical symptoms. He checked me over thoroughly and reassured me. He documented them clearly, and explained my treatment options, a likely diagnosis, prognosis and a pathway. I felt listened to and supported. While I don't like medical appointments, I do think the GP is an excellent, holistic practitioner who strives to see his patients as full human beings.