Social Media Code of Conduct

Purpose of this document

To provide guidance for the use of Facebook for Patients.

This policy provides guidelines about the appropriate use of Facebook as a communications tool by patients specifically relating to services provided by Thorpewood Medical Practice.

Introduction

• There are a large range of social media platforms available, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. The Surgery realises that many of our Patients use social media as a way to interact with others, find out information and leave feedback. In order to ensure the Surgery is able to communicate and engage with those who use social media as a form of communication, the Surgery hosts a Facebook page account. The Facebook page is managed and monitored by the Surgery management team.
• This policy provides guidelines about the appropriate use of social media as a communications tool This policy has been developed based on best practice from the NHS.

Scope

This policy applies to all Patients who interact with the Surgery Facebook pages or mention staff or services provided by Thorpewood Medical Practice in public posts Failure to use social media in accordance with this policy could result in action being taken relating to a review the patient’s relationship with the Surgery, which could ultimately end in termination of their relationship with the surgery..

Responsibilities

Senior Partner

The Senior Partner has overarching accountability for this policy and delegates responsibility for ensuring this policy is applied consistently and fairly, to the Partners and Practice Manager at the Surgery.

Practice Manager

The Practice Manager is responsible for ensuring a robust policy is in place for the use of Facebook and monitoring compliance with this policy.

Patients

• Are able to post comments, but these should be objective, any complaints should be made directly to the practice manager by contacting the surgery
• Please remember that whenever or however you may be using the Surgery Facebook page, as a patient we ask you to maintain standards of reasonable behaviour. Any breach of this such as inflammatory, derogatory, slanderous, or abusive statements may lead to action, such as review of registration or civil claim. Just as we do not tolerate bullying in real life, we will not tolerate it
• Will not be able to:
  • make appointments from this medium.
  • make formal complaints from this medium.
  • request prescriptions.
  • Have any personal response to a post.
• In the event of poor behaviours, you may be removed from the access list.

Surgery use of Facebook to support communications

The Surgery will use the following social media platform to  communicate with patients, the public, staff, and the media:

• Facebook

Our Facebook account will be monitored during the hours: 10:30 – 15:30, Monday – Friday, excluding public holidays. Occasionally we may cover events outside of these hours live on our platform.

From time-to-time social media services may be unavailable and we accept no responsibility for lack of service due to social media service downtime.

We may use some scheduling tools to help us ensure content is spread across the week. Our followers can expect between 1–5 posts a week. This may increase in the case of an emergency.

By sharing other social media users content our organisation does not endorse the information or others’ views of that organisation or individual. We aim to share information which adds to any debate or topic we are involved in.

Our Facebook content will cover some or all of the following:

• Alerts about new services or new initiatives, for example, new publications, videos on YouTube, blog posts or health
• Sharing content from organisations, such as other NHS organisations, the emergency services and public sector organisations
• Occasional live coverage of events

Discrimination, harassment, and ‘cyberbullying’

The Surgery supports a culture of inclusion and this should be respected. All Users are advised that they must refrain from any online behaviour which could be considered to be discriminatory, or which may constitute bullying or harassment. This includes, for example, making offensive comments relating to gender, gender reassignment, race (including nationality), disability, sexual orientation, religion/belief age, or any other protected equality and diversity characteristic (this is not an exhaustive list). Using Facebook to bully another individual (‘cyberbullying’) and posting images that are discriminatory or offensive, or links to such images are included in this notice, meaning to refrain from such behaviours.

Incidents of discrimination, bullying or harassment which take place via social media will be managed in line with relevant Surgery policies and/or legislation.

Note that a filter to block unpleasant language is in use.

If anyone has any concerns in this respect, they are encouraged to contact the Practice Manager.

Monitoring the use of Facebook

All users should be aware that Facebook is monitored by staff for mentions and comments relating to staff and services provided by Thropewood Medical Practice and where breaches of this policy are found, action may be taken against the perpetrator as described above. This may include reporting of offensive, inaccurate or slanderous comments being reported to Facebook.

The Surgery reserves the right to restrict or prevent access to the Thorpewood Medical Practice Facebook page

Author(s):	Practice Manager
Other contributors:
Approvals and endorsements:	Partners
Consultation:	Staff & Patient Participation Group
Issue no:	1
File name:	Social Media Policy
Supersedes:	N/A
Equality Assessed	Yes
Implementation	May 2022
Monitoring: (give brief details how this will be done)	DPA incidents/breaches will be reported and investigated.  DPA audits will be carried out on a regular basis.
Other relevant policies/documents & references:	Information Security Policy  Incident Reporting & Management Policy Data Protection Policy
Additional Information: