Patient feedback terms and conditions

Introduction

We (the HFEA) encourage patients, partners and donors to give feedback about the fertility clinic. We then publish some of this information on Choose a Fertility Clinic, along with an inspection rating and birth statistics to help others see whether a clinic is right for them. 
These Terms and conditions contain important information about our legal position, copyright matters and your responsibilities while using the patient feedback tool. These terms are in addition to our standard website terms of use and privacy.

We reserve the right to change any part of these agreements without notice and your use of this website and feedback tool will be deemed as acceptance of this agreement. We ask that you read them carefully and check back regularly as they are subject to change.
By visiting the website and contributing to it, you agree to be legally bound by these Terms and Conditions. If you do not wish to agree to these Terms and conditions, then please do not use the website or make any contributions.

Misrepresentation

By clinics

Clinic staff should never provide feedback on their own clinic or other clinics. It is an offence under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 for businesses to falsely represent themselves as consumers.

The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 prohibit unfair commercial ‎practices. Submitting fake online reviews satisfies the definition of unfair commercial practice because ‎it contravenes good professional practice and it is likely to distort the economic behaviour of the ‎average consumer. 

Inspectors will review the responses received and will follow up on any unexplained or unusual activity.

Prosecution for breaches of the Unfair Trading Regulations can be brought by the Office of Fair ‎Trading (OFT) and by the Trading Standards.

By members of the public

All ratings and comments provided must be truthful and honestly held beliefs or opinions.

We reserve the right to remove ratings that we believe are misrepresentative, including multiple submissions from the same person.

Giving your feedback

You should not use the feedback tool to make a complaint about a clinic. Complaints should be dealt with under the complaints process as described on this page of our website here.

Comments submitted should relate to your personal experience or that of someone close to you. If you want to comment on someone else’s experience, (eg, a relative or someone you care for) then you may do so if you ensure that you are not named in the posting and you state how the other person is connected to you (eg, ‘my partner’). You warrant that all statements of fact in any comment you submit are true, and that any expression of opinion is your honestly held opinion on those facts, or that of the person on whose behalf you are writing.

You should provide a rating only once per course of treatment. Responses will be monitored for repeat submissions and we reserve the right to remove additional submissions if necessary.

Use of ratings and feedback

We use the ratings that are provided through the tool to generate overall question ratings and a patient rating. This is based on the average rating of the first four survey questions for the last year but not the cost question. The number of ratings used to generate the average is shown.

We only use ratings over a rolling 12-month period. After 12 months, ratings are no longer counted towards the patient rating or question ratings.

Each question has five options. Each answer (apart from the cost question) is given a numerical value from 1-5, with one being the worst answer and 5 the best. These values are then added for all responses in the last 12 months and an average is generated.

These ratings should not be solely relied upon to decide upon which clinic to use. These may help patients or donors to get a sense of what others think of various clinics, but the ratings may not be representative of the views of all clinic users. We therefore disclaim all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on such ratings by any visitor to our site, or by anyone who may be informed of any of its contents.

Limitation of liability

Please see limitation of liability section on the HFEA’s main terms of use.

Action we may take

We reserve the right to delete any content at any time for any reason and we are under no obligation to publish any contributions. We reserve the right to alter or update the house rules or Terms and conditions at any time.

General

 If any of these terms are determined to be illegal, invalid or otherwise unenforceable then the remaining terms shall remain in full force and effect.

These terms shall be governed by and interpreted in accordance with the laws of England.