Social media house rules

We have several social media channels - Facebook, X, LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube. We use these platforms to update our people and communities across the east of England region about our work, our services, opportunities at EEAST and our people. We also use it to listen and respond to your questions and views.

• Our social media accounts are accessed and monitored by our communications team, within office hours Monday – Friday 9am – 5pm. Posts are also scheduled to go live outside of these hours.

• No medical professional has access to our accounts, so if you’re contacting us for a medical emergency please go to: 111.nhs.uk or call:

  • 111 if it’s urgent but not an emergency,
  • 999 for medical emergencies

• If you follow us on social media, we do not automatically follow back.

• Being followed, using hashtags or mentioning other accounts does not imply endorsement of any kind.

• Retweets or sharing of content from our accounts is not an endorsement.

• our social media accounts will be monitored from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays).

• we will respond to queries on social media in a timely manner. This may include directing you to most appropriate team within our service to help with your query, if we can’t

  • we will make our content accessible to engage with
  • we will remove comments which we believe:
  • are abusive or obscene
  • bully, harass or intimidate any individual or organisation
  • are unlawful, libelous or defamatory
  • promote discrimination based on age, disability, gender, marital status, pregnancy, race, religion and sexual orientation
  • violate any intellectual property rights, including copyright
  • are spam
  • are deliberately deceptive or misleading
  • are promotional material, including links to external websites and promotions.

• Please be polite. We know that sometimes things don’t go to plan and you’ll want to flag things up with us. Do remember, we’re human and the person monitoring the social media account is only trying to help. So are other people who use social media.

• Do not bully, harass, intimidate, defame, abuse or threaten any individual or organisation or use obscene or swear words.

• Anyone repeatedly engaging with us using content or language which falls into the above categories will be blocked and/or reported to the associated social media platform.

• Do not post comments that are personal – either to you or our people. If you’ve a complaint to make against an individual, we’ll look into it. We’ll point you towards how to make a complaint with us and the appropriate team.

• Do not post comments that are mean-spirited or posted with the intention of causing offence or hurt.

• Do not post content that promotes discrimination based on the protected characteristics; age, disability, gender, martial status, pregnancy, race, religion and sexual orientation.

• Do not over-share. If you’ve got an issue, we’ll happily look into it. But be careful not to post private information about yourself or others publicly.

• We also reserve the right to screen shot content and contact police.

• We won’t discuss any individual’s care through social media.
• We don’t deal with complaints through social media. EEAST has a formal process to follow here. You can find more or make a complaint on our website.
• We don’t answer clinical or medical questions on social media as it is not monitored by any clinical staff. We will do our best to signpost where to get information, advice or support as appropriate.
• If you have any questions about our social media or feel a post may be taken down unfairly email us at webteam@eastamb.nhs.uk