At the Maples Health Centre we appreciate some people may choose to air their concerns regarding services on social media.
Our experience is that comments posted on social media can be of a negative nature and attract all manner of further negative responses – often becoming individualized comments rather than constructive feedback about the Surgery.
We have noticed a developing trend where a patient will use a Social Media site such as Facebook to comment on the Practice and members of the surgery staff. Patients must not post comments on social media that identify staff who work at the Practice.
The partners reserve the right to remove a patient from the surgery list and report them to the social networking site if they are found to have made libellous statements or defamatory comments about the surgery or a member of the surgery staff. The legal definition of defamation is:
Any intentionally false communication, either written or spoken, that harms a person’s reputation; decreases the respect, regard, or confidence in which a person is held; or induces disparaging, hostile or disagreeable opinions or feelings against a person.
We welcome all feedback – positive and negative as it gives us the opportunity to review the services we provide and, where necessary, make changes or improvements.
If you would like to provide feedback or have a concern about the service you have received from the Doctors, or any of the team, please let us know as soon as possible, by either talking directly to one of the management team, using the feedback channels on the website or using the nhs.uk website. This will enable the Surgery to respond appropriately.
We will:
- Listen to your comments and concerns.
- Consider feedback and take appropriate action.
- Try and resolve any concerns as quickly as possible.
- Put you in contact with the right person to help you further.
We hope that most problems can be resolved easily and quickly. If your problem cannot be resolved in this way and you wish to make a formal complaint, it should be addressed to:
Practice Manager
The Maples Health Centre
Vancouver road
Broxbourne
Hertfordshire
EN10 6FD
We will acknowledge your complaint within three working days and aim to have responded within 30 working days.
If you are unsure about any of the contents of this policy or want to discuss the Practice’s social media, please contact the Practice/Social Media Managers.
Ethical social networking
The GMC’s guidance, Doctors’ use of social media states that social media sites should never be used to discuss individual patients or their care. If a GP is contacted by a patient through their private profile for medical advice the patient will be asked to direct their query to the surgery.
You would not expect to read derogatory comments about yourself online and neither do we.