The Trust uses Twitter, a free messaging service offered by a third party, as one tool in its efforts to communicate clearly, quickly and in an engaging manner with people interested in our work. You can follow us @RBandH
Twitter content delivered by the Trust includes (but is not limited to):
- links to news releases, videos, guidance and other approved, publicly available Trust material
- links to relevant information produced and published elsewhere (work of other NHS organisations, patient organisations, researchers, news organisations and others) - this can include videos, blog posts, and retweets from other Twitter users (see below for our policy on retweets)
- interesting facts, quotes or observations related to our work.
Comments, feedback and direct messages
We welcome feedback and ideas from all our followers. The Communications team reads all comments and direct messages sent and ensures that any emerging themes, helpful suggestions or feedback is passed to relevant people in the Trust.
Retweets
Tweets we retweet do not imply endorsement on the part of the Trust. We may retweet news, links and personal observations we believe are relevant to the work we do.
Following
The Trust’s decision to follow a particular Twitter user does not imply endorsement of any kind. We follow accounts on Twitter we believe are relevant to our work. This could include following the Twitter accounts of companies and other commercial enterprises (and/or their employees) who comment on Trust- related issues.
Availability
We commit to updating and monitoring our Twitter account during regular office hours: 9am to 17.30pm and monitor and respond at other times of the day when appropriate/when resources allow.
Complaints, media requests and personal issues
We encourage you to follow traditional channels to make a media request, freedom of information (FOI) request or complaint.
Trust staff tweeting
Some Trust staff tweet under their own names or pseudonyms. Despite their professional affiliation with the Trust, their tweets do not represent the official position of the Trust.
Comments on the Trust’s Twitter channel will be moderated and removed if they contravene our moderation policy.
Comments moderation policy
Twitter comments will be moderated and will be removed if they:
- are not on-topic - please don’t post messages that are not related
- are malicious or offensive in nature, or constitute a personal attack on a person’s character
- incite hatred on the basis of race, religion, gender, nationality or sexuality or any other personal characteristic
- reveal personal details, such as private addresses, phone numbers, email addresses or other online contact details
- constitute spamming of the site
- impersonate or falsely claim to represent a person or organisation
- are party political in nature - the NHS is always high on the political agenda, and while we acknowledge that references to political parties and their policies may often be inevitable, we reserve the right to exclude comments which are purely party-political in nature
- include swearing, hate-speech or obscenity
- break the law – this includes libel, condoning illegal activity, and breaking copyright
- advertise commercial products and services – you can mention relevant products and services as long as they support your comment.
Where we choose to remove or not publish a comment for whatever reason, we will make reference to our moderation policy. This is not about censoring users’ views. The aim is to ensure that comments relate to the particular subject being discussed. Moderation will not be used to suppress legitimate, reasoned discussion.
If you are aged 16 or under, please get you parent/guardian’s permission before submitting a comment. Users without this consent are not allowed to participate or provide us with personal information.