Before I Book allows clinics to respond to patient experiences where appropriate.
The aim is to support fairness, transparency and useful information for people researching before booking.
1. Purpose of Clinic Responses
Clinic responses can help:
- clarify factual details
- explain clinic processes
- respond to concerns
- provide general information
- show that a clinic takes feedback seriously
Clinic responses should not be used to intimidate users, reveal private information or suppress genuine patient experiences.
2. Who Can Respond
Clinic responses should only be submitted by an authorised clinic representative.
Before I Book may ask for verification before publishing a clinic response.
A clinic representative may include:
- clinic owner
- registered manager
- practice manager
- authorised administrator
- authorised clinician
- appointed complaints or patient liaison contact
3. How Clinics Should Respond
Clinic responses should be:
- factual
- professional
- respectful
- concise
- relevant to the review or question
- written without disclosing private patient information
A good response may:
- thank the user for their feedback
- explain the clinic’s general process
- invite the user to contact the clinic directly
- clarify factual points
- explain how concerns are usually handled
4. What Clinic Responses Must Not Include
Clinic responses must not include:
- private patient information
- medical details about the user
- appointment records
- accusations or personal attacks
- threats of legal action
- abusive or dismissive language
- attempts to identify anonymous users
- promotional claims unrelated to the review
- pressure on the user to remove or change their review
5. Patient Confidentiality
Clinics must take care not to reveal confidential information in public responses.
Even if a clinic believes it recognises a reviewer, it should not disclose details that could identify the person or their care.
6. Moderation
Clinic responses may be moderated before or after publication.
Before I Book may edit, reject, hide or remove a clinic response if it breaches this policy or creates legal, privacy or safety concerns.
Moderation may include removing:
- personal data
- confidential information
- hostile wording
- irrelevant promotional material
- unsafe medical advice
- legally risky statements
7. No Paid Influence
A clinic does not need to pay to respond to a review.
Payment, sponsorship or commercial relationships should not give a clinic the right to remove genuine patient reviews or control independent discussion.
8. Disputing a Review
If a clinic believes a review is false, unfair, abusive, confidential or otherwise in breach of Before I Book policies, it may request a review of the content.
A takedown request does not guarantee removal. The content will be assessed against the relevant policies.
9. Right of Reply
Before I Book aims to give clinics a fair opportunity to respond where appropriate, while protecting patient privacy and the independence of patient experiences.
10. Overall Principle
Clinic responses should improve understanding, not silence feedback.
The platform works best when patients can share genuine experiences and clinics can respond professionally where needed.