Privacy and cookies

This website is provided as a resource for patients, the public and healthcare professionals. It provides information about our hospitals, our staff and our services.  We aim for high standards of accessibility – read more on our accessibility page. Our position on various legal issues relating to this site, including cookies, are laid out below.

Privacy statement

We are committed to respecting the privacy of individuals using this website. The information in this statement relates to website use only; for information regarding data protection and fair processing of your personal patient information, please refer to our Fair Processing Notice.

Cookies

Cookies are small pieces of information gathered from the device you use to access our website e.g. your computer or mobile phone. Cookies are used to improve your experience of the site; they cannot be used to identify you.

We set one cookie on your browser, while you are visiting the site, to help us monitor traffic and continuously improve the site. As soon as your browser is closed, the cookie expires.

We do not collect any personal information about visitors to the site. The cookie we set on the website helps us to analyse the site's usage such as the pages looked at, the times of day and the type of web browser used, not to store personal information. The cookie will appear on your device as "ASP.NET_SessionId".  and is clearly labelled as "www.rbht.nhs.uk".

You can change the way your device manages cookies by changing your browser's settings. Please note, that if you change your settings, our website may not appear correctly or work as efficiently. 

Third party cookies

In addition to our session cookie, Google Analytics adds four cookies to your computer or device to help us with our site monitoring. These cookies are named "_utma", "_utmb", "_utmc" and "_utmz". You can find out more about these cookies on Google's cookie information page.

You can also choose to stop Google Analytics tracking your activity on your site by opting out.

Disclaimer

This website is designed to provide information and education about heart and lung disease to healthcare professionals, patients and the public.

We are unable to offer medical advice or professional services through this site. Referrals for expert opinion or treatment for heart or lung disease are made only by registered medical practitioners, and not by patients themselves.

Every effort has been made to ensure that the information provided on this website is accurate. However, neither our hospitals, our partners, nor the authors or maintenance staff for this website, can accept any responsibility whatsoever for any consequence of inaccuracy, howsoever caused.

The information provided here is not intended as a substitute for professional medical care, does not constitute business, medical or other professional advice, and is subject to change. If you have, or suspect that you may have, heart or lung disease, you are strongly advised to consult your own General Practitioner without delay.

We are not responsible for the content or reliability of the linked websites and does not necessarily endorse the views expressed within them. No guarantee is offered in relation to the availability or operation of linked pages. A link does not imply an endorsement of a site; likewise, not linking to a particular site does not imply lack of endorsement. 

We cannot guarantee uninterrupted access to this website, and accept no responsibility for any damages arising from the loss of use of this information.

Copyright

Content on this website is the copyright of the Royal Brompton and Harefield Clinical Group unless otherwise stated. Where copyright applies, visitors may download material for private research, study or in-house use only. Visitors must not copy, distribute, or publish any material from this website. Any other use of copyright material requires the formal permission of the Royal Brompton and Harefield Clinical Group. Email the web editor with any requests.

Links policy

We are not responsible for the content or reliability of linked websites and does not endorse any views expressed within them.

The content and availability of external sites will change over time.

Please contact us if you encounter any broken links or material you feel inappropriate on a linked site.

We aim to deliver links that allow access to additional information, background material or, if appropriate, informed comment.

The content of other sites is beyond our editorial control and may change over time. This means before linking to any site we check the content of the site thoroughly and carry out further checks after the link is established.

We never include a link in return for cash, services or any other consideration in kind. In accordance with NHS guidelines we do not link to commercial sites, unless working with a commercial partner.

Links are made available on relevant pages rather than a dedicated links page, in accordance with NHS guidelines.

Feedback

You are very welcome to provide feedback about this site e.g. advising us of broken links, out of date or inaccurate information and to make suggestions.

Any feedback to the site will be treated in the strictest confidence.