Social media offers opportunities for us to engage with different audiences, including the public, patients and our communities.

We want our social media channels to be an online space where people feel they can interact with our content and each other. We request that anyone interacting with our social media channels shows courtesy, kindness and respect for each other.

We might need to make changes to our social media principles as things can change quickly in the online environment.

Our Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust social media accounts are accessed and monitored by our communications team Monday to Friday, from 9am – 5pm. Posts can also be scheduled to go live outside of these hours.

Our Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust social media accounts are:

Facebook

Instagram

LinkedIn

X, formerly twitter

Please note we are unable to give health advice via social media. No clinicians have access to our social media accounts. We will be unable to offer any health advice via direct message. Use the following services if you are in need of clinical advice:

  • If you feel unwell and unsure where to go for help, please visit the Frimley Health and Care website.
  • If you need urgent medical help right now, it is not a life-threatening emergency, but you are unsure of which service you need, contact NHS 111 online, in the NHS App or by calling 111. You will be directed to the best place to get help.
  • Dial 999 only for life-saving emergencies only.

We will share or retweet content which we feel is useful or interesting to our audiences.

  • If you have a query for us, we aim to respond to your message/comment on the same day (during working hours). There may be times where we can’t get back to you on the same day – we will respond as soon as we can.
  • We monitor all mentions, @replies, posts, comments and direct messages sent to us. We can’t always reply to every individual message we receive but if you have a query which we can support with, then we will get back to you and may request further information. Your query may be answered through our automatic reply so we may not respond back in this case.
  • We may ask you to send a private message to us with your contact details, particularly when it’s not appropriate for us to respond on social media. This means the right person can follow up with you about your question or concern.
  • We will treat your message with the politeness you’d expect if you were dealing with us face-to-face or on the telephone.

  • We won’t discuss any individual’s care through social media.
  • We won’t deal with complaints through social media as there’s an existing process to follow. If you contact us via social media to raise a concern or a complaint, we will direct you to the 'share your experience' page which will signpost you to the appropriate team for your concern or complaint.
  • We won’t answer clinical or medical questions, however we will do our best to signpost you to where to get information, advice or support as appropriate.

  • We ask that you are courteous and treat each other with respect when interacting on our social media channels. Please remember the person monitoring the social media account is only trying to help but there may be some queries we are unable to support with.
  • Do not bully, harass, intimidate, defame, abuse or threaten any individual or organisation. Do not use obscene or profane words.
  • Do not post comments that are personal – either to you or our staff. If you have a complaint, we will signpost you to the correct complaints process: Make a formal complaint.
  • Do not post comments that are unpleasant or posted with the intention of causing offence or hurt.
  • Do not advertise.
  • Do not post content that promotes discrimination of any kind.
  • Don’t spam on our social media channels. Making the same points over and over - otherwise known as spamming - is not something we tolerate on our social media channels. If you have a complaint, you should raise this through the correct process: Make a formal complaint.
  • Please don’t post confidential or personal information through social media.

Everyone is entitled to share their views and we won’t remove a post simply because it is negative. However, if we feel an interaction goes against our principles, we may need to act:

  • We may hide or delete your comment if this goes against our principles.
  • Anyone repeatedly engaging with us and posting content that goes against our principles will be blocked and/or reported to the social media platform.
  • We also reserve the right to screen shot content and contact the police if we believe content has breached a threshold of criminality.

If you have any questions about our social media or feel a post may have been taken down unfairly, email: fhft.communications@nhs.net