Contacting us via social media

Please note there are some instances when you may not receive a direct response from us due to patient confidentiality so please read the below:

If your message concerns an URGENT medical issue visit the Gynaecology Emergency Department page on our website here: https://www.liverpoolwomens.nhs.uk/our-services/gynaecology/in-an-emergency/

If you are pregnant and over 19 weeks and 6 days gestation please go to: https://www.liverpoolwomens.nhs.uk/our-services/maternity/if-you-are-concerned/.

If you have a query regarding an appointment please call 0151 702 4352.

Please note that we know at times it can be difficult to get through to our Appointments Team. We apologise in advance if you experience any delays reaching us.

Unfortunately, we cannot engage with patients about personal appointment queries via our social media channels so these messages cannot be answered directly. However, we do share any messages we receive to the relevant teams so they are aware we have been contacted. If you do send us a direct message, please include details about the service you are accessing so we can pass your query onto the correct team.

To talk about your experience contact our Patient Experience Team directly at pals@lwh.nhs.uk or by calling 0151 702 4353 and they will provide support and advice. If you have provided some feedback in your original message we will also pass this on to our Patient Experience Team so they are aware in advance of you contacting them.

Have you got some nice feedback for our amazing staff? If so please consider leaving a review or tag us into a post and we will happily share this with staff.

For the latest Covid-19 restrictions in place and for any other general information about the Trust please visit our website at: www.liverpoolwomens.nhs.uk

If your message relates to something else not covered by the above we will be in touch with a response soon.

Finally, we encourage everyone to be kind and respectful when engaging with each other on our social media channels. Please take some time to read our social media house rules via the link below. On some occasions we may choose to remove or request you to remove any posts that do not follow this guidance on this page.

If you follow us on social media, we do not automatically follow back. Being followed, using hashtags or mentioning other accounts within our posts does not imply endorsement of any kind.

We update and monitor our social media accounts during normal office hours (typically 9am – 5pm), Monday to Friday. Social media platforms may occasionally be unavailable and we accept no responsibility for our lack of service due to any downtime or during periods of significant pressure on our services when our responses may be delayed due to other priorities.

We welcome feedback, ideas and engagement and will try to join a conversation where possible, and where it is right to do so.

Compliments, complaints and emerging themes are routinely passed onto colleagues in relevant hospital departments, as well as the Patient Experience Team who can be reached directly via the Contact Us form on our Trust website, via email at pals@lwh.nhs.uk or by calling 0151 702 4353.

We may use your contact information/usernames to respond to messages/ comments you send to us. If you post publicly on social media, we may re-share your post with our followers. By tagging us into your posts or naming the Trust within your content, we will treat this as your implied consent that you are happy for us to re-share this information with our followers if we choose to and this includes any photographs/videos you share with us. You should ensure that anyone else featured in your content has given consent for their image or information to be shared before posting it onto any of our channels.  

You may unsubscribe/ unfollow us at any stage or request for any information we share about you to be removed from our social media channels.

By engaging with our social media channels you agree to the following principles and terms of use.

All users must comply with the social media platform’s terms of use (e.g Facebook/Twitter/Instagram), as well as our LWH’s terms of use below.

You are wholly responsible for any content you post, including content that you choose to share.

We will remove, in whole or in part, or ignore posts that we feel are inappropriate for any reason.

We will delete comments and block accounts spreading false information about any aspect of the services we deliver or any content about general healthcare subjects where the content being shared could cause harm or upset to our patients or the public. This will be determined by LWH’s judgement and discretion.

If any content which includes the identity of a member of staff is shared without their consent – including the name of that individual and/or images of them – you will be asked to delete the relevant posts immediately. If you fail to delete this information following our request in the timeframe indicated, they will be deleted by LWH where possible. If it is not possible for LWH to delete this information proactively, the posts and associated profiles will be reported to the relevant social media platform.

We will report and remove any social media profiles that are set up using LWH imagery without permission, such as an account falsely representing the image or views of LWH (e.g. fake accounts).

We will remove, block, ban and/or report users to the associated social media platform who direct messages at us which we believe:

• bully, harass or intimidate any individual or organisation
• are unlawful, libellous, defamatory, abusive, threatening, harmful, obscene, profane
• promote discrimination based on the protected characteristics; age, disability, gender, martial status, pregnancy, race, religion and sexual orientation
• are deceptive or misleading
• infringe or violate someone else's rights
• violate the law
• violate any intellectual property rights
• discuss on-going legal proceedings
• are spam (persistent negative and/ or abusive tweeting in which the aim is to provoke a response)
• advertise products or services
• are disruptive
• are repetitive

We will also remove, block, report or ban any user who:

• encourages others to post such messages
• uses offensive images as their profile picture has an offensive user name

Our normal working hours are 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday. Whilst we occasionally monitor social media activity outside of these hours a response cannot be guaranteed.

We aim to reply to comments and messages within 48 hours via an auto-reply and/or an additional message if further information is required.

We’ll always try to help you or direct you to people and/or departments who can. However there are some instances when we are not able to reply via social media due to patient confidentiality so please be aware of the following in order to get your query dealt with effectively:

Monday to Friday between 8.30am and 4pm you can telephone the LWH PALS Team on 0151 702 4353.

If they are unable to answer or you’re calling outside of these hours, please leave your name and contact details and a member of the team will get back to you as soon as possible.

Outside of these hours if urgent you can contact the duty manager via the main hospital switchboard on 0151 708 9988

We are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. We may use analytics or third parties to analyse our social media channels for trends, insights and engagement.

Should you spot any content or comments posted on our social media channels which you believe are not in accordance with these house rules, please report it to communications@lwh.nhs.uk and/or the relevant social media channel.

As part of our communications activities at Liverpool Women's, patients and visitors are sometimes asked to help us by providing or posing for photographs and video footage taken by the Trust. We also sometimes ask patients to share their stories or experiences to support some of our promotional materials in either written form or as part of a recorded interview.  

If you support us with any of the above, you may be asked by a member of the Communications Team or another member of staff at the Trust to complete a media consent form. This is so we have your permission on record to use any imagery or information about you within our communication materials such as patient information leaflets, press releases to local media, and supporting imagery on our website or other platforms. On some occasions and depending on circumstances, verbal consent is appropriate as long as it is a senior member of Trust staff who has received this consent and can inform the Trust's Communications Team on your behalf. However, written consent is always our first preference and therefore this may be followed up retrospectively even following verbal consent. 

If you are asked to complete a media consent form the link is below and this will be sent to you:

LWH Media Consent Form: https://forms.office.com/r/xMhRa8arPU

For more informal sharing or use of patient images on public platforms such as social media pages, we will adopt the following principles;

• If you share images on social media from a personal account and tag a Liverpool Women's NHS Foundation Trust account into your post, or mention the Trust by name, we will take this as implied consent that you are happy for us to re-share your images onto our corresponding Trust page/account. 
• If you share images in response to a post from Liverpool Women's NHS Foundation Trust - for example if you were to reply to one of our posts with an image in the comments section - we will take this as implied consent that you are happy for us to re-share your images onto our Trust platforms.
• You have the right to request for us to remove any images of you at any point in the future. Where it is possible to do so we will remove these immediately on our digital platforms. For hard copy materials such as printed brochures or patient information leaflets, we will discontinue any future print runs and replace your images with alternatives. Depending on the nature of the materials in question it will not always be possible to immediately dispose of printed materials in circulation but we will discuss this with you to ensure all parties are reasonably satisfied with the approach. 
• On some occasions you may be contacted by the Trust or third parties (such as local or national media) seeking permission for images shared on your personal account or on our Trust platforms to be shared more widely (i.e. on non-LWH platforms). This is entirely your choice and you should be asked for permission first by the third party in question.