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.
How we use social media
Our main Welsh Ambulance Services University NHS Trust social media accounts are accessed and monitored by our Communications Team Monday to Friday, from 8:30am – 4:30pm. Posts are also scheduled to go live outside of these hours.
Our Welsh Ambulance Services University NHS Trust social media accounts are:
Our NHS 111 Wales social media accounts are:
Please note we are unable to give health advice via social media. No clinicians have access to our social media accounts. Use the following for clinical advice:
- If you feel unwell and unsure where to go for help, the NHS 111 Wales website should be your first port of call.
- Dial 999 only for medical emergencies.
If you follow us on social media, we do not automatically follow back. Being followed by our accounts, using hashtags or mentioning does not imply endorsement of any kind.
We will share or retweet content which we feel is useful or interesting to our audiences.
What we will do
- 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.
What we won’t do
- We won’t discuss any individual’s care through social media.
- We don’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 complaint, we will signpost you to the complaints information page on our website: Complaints and Concerns.
- We don’t answer clinical or medical questions, but we’ll do our best to signpost where to get information, advice or support as appropriate.
What we ask from you
- 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: Complaints and Concerns.
- 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 - isn’t something we tolerate on our social media channels. If you have a complaint, you should raise this through the correct process: Complaints and Concerns.
- Please don’t post confidential or personal information through social media.
When we will take action
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: WAS.communications@wales.nhs.uk