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Manage patient feedback on the NHS website

A key feature of the NHS website allows patients to rate and review NHS health and social care services in England.

User feedback helps patients make informed decisions and encourages care providers to assess their services and make changes where necessary.

To find out more, watch the video about ratings and reviews on YouTube.

Patients

How patients can rate and review care providers

Visit find services near you on the NHS website and search for any NHS care provider. After selecting it, you can rate and review it.

You'll be asked when you visited the service and to write a review about your visit. You’ll also be asked to rate your experience. There are some optional questions for certain care providers before you can submit your review.

You can submit an anonymous review, but you must prove you've provided a valid email address by clicking on a link emailed to you before the review is considered for publication.

All reviews are checked before being published. Reviews that do not comply with our reviews policy will not be published. Only reviews about experiences that happened within the last 2 years will be published.

Read more about the NHS website reviews policy and patient feedback terms and conditions.

How long reviews stay on the website

Published reviews stay on the NHS website for 2 years from the time of your experience. After 2 years they're removed and any associated personal information is deleted.

Care providers

Right to reply

Care providers have the right to reply to all patient reviews. This can be done using the NHS Profile Manager.

If you have any concerns about a review, select "report as unsuitable". This will remove the review immediately and alert the moderation team.

How care providers can respond to reviews

Patients can leave a review for most types of care provider. To respond to reviews as a care provider, register for the NHS Profile Manager.

How to avoid personal reviews

All reviews are pre-moderated to ensure that nothing libellous or defamatory is published on the site.

Patients cannot name or identify individuals through their personal features or descriptions.

How to handle reviews meant for someone else

If you believe a review has been posted on your profile by mistake, select "report as unsuitable" and follow the instructions.

If possible, give details of the location you believe the review was meant for, including the postcode, organisation name and the name of the correct care provider.

Posting reviews on behalf of a patient

A care provider cannot post reviews on behalf of a patient. If a patient is not comfortable with computers, a family member or friend may assist them. Staff working for a care provider should not assist patients in posting reviews.

Several online checks are used to ensure reviews are genuine and posted by patients, not staff. Any reviews found to have been posted by staff are immediately removed from the website.

Social care: third-party review providers

Patients can leave reviews for care homes and homecare services on the NHS website.

Reviews supplied by trusted partners who provide a similar online feedback service are also published on the NHS website.

Reviews can also be exported to any partner who wishes to receive them. These can then be published on other websites, increasing their visibility.

Moderators

The role of the NHS website moderators

Our moderators:

  • screen every message to ensure they comply with the reviews policy
  • investigate reports of unsuitable reviews and action them appropriately
  • move reviews that may have been submitted to an incorrect profile

How to deal with unfair, inaccurate or libellous comments

A patient's review reflects their experience. You may disagree with them, but they're entitled to express their opinions as long as they're honest and genuinely held.

All reviews published on the NHS website are reviewed by moderators. They'll reject any reviews that go against the reviews policy and general terms and conditions.

If you believe a review has been published in error, you can notify our moderation team by selecting "report as unsuitable". You'll need to give a short explanation outlining why you feel the review does not comply with the reviews policy.

After submitting the report, the review will be removed immediately and a moderator will review it and your report. Please be aware that a review will be republished if it does not breach our guidelines.

Reviews that identify individual staff members or make accusations of clinical negligence will not be published.

How reviews indicating a suicide are handled

All reviews on the NHS website are reviewed by our moderators. Once we're alerted to any reviews that cause serious concerns about a vulnerable patient, we'll try to contact them by email.

We'll advise them to contact their GP in the first instance, with further advice tailored to their review.

If a person's life is believed to be at risk, we'll contact the clinical staff involved in their care. If we're unable to identify and contact their GP or healthcare team, we'll contact local police.

Page last reviewed: 7 November 2023
Next review due: 7 November 2026