How we use social media

We use social media to share staff and patient stories, promote our latest news and events, and engage with and build a sense of community amongst the groups we serve.

We also share stories from our partners, including other NHS organisations, Imperial Health Charity, and Imperial College London.

This page sets out how we run our channels and how you can get involved.

Our channels

Monitoring

Our social media channels are managed by our communications team and monitored Monday to Friday 09.00-17.00, excluding public holidays. You can contact us either directly via our social media or by emailing imperial.communications@nhs.net.

We receive a high volume of enquiries, but we aim to respond to all enquiries within 24 hours during the working week. If we cannot answer your enquiry ourselves, we will refer you to the most appropriate contact at the Trust. We are not able respond to clinical or medical questions via our social media and patients and members of the public cannot request or schedule appointments via our social media.

Get involved – share your story

We want our social media to reflect and represent our patients. We actively encourage patients to come forward to share their stories of the care they received at our hospitals and to thank members of staff who have been a part of their care journey.

We also recognise that lived experience is a powerful way of raising awareness of different conditions and, where appropriate, we encourage our patients to share their stories to help other patients who might be going through something similar.

If you are interested in sharing your story, please email imperial.communications@nhs.net.

Engaging with our social media communities

We actively encourage our followers to engage with the content we share on our channels. This includes liking, commenting and sharing our posts.

However, we expect our followers to engage with our content in a safe and respectful manner. On rare occasions, we ‘hide’, remove and/or report inappropriate content posted by users. Inappropriate content could include, but is not limited to:

  • abusive or threatening messages
  • offensive language, including swearing or personal insults
  • Harassment, including naming members of staff in a negative way
  • hate speech
  • spam/commercial posts
  • comments which are unrelated to our work.

We reserve the right to ban or block users from any social media page if they repeatedly post inappropriate content.

If you would like more information, you can request a copy of our social media policy by emailing imperial.communications@nhs.net.

Keeping our patients and staff safe

As a general rule, we do not permit photography, filming or sound recording in our hospitals because of patient confidentiality, in line with the Data Protection Act 2018. This means:

  • patients and visitors should not film or take photos of other patients and visitors
  • under no circumstances should patients or visitors film in secret/covertly
  • patients or visitors should not film or photograph staff without permission
  • patients or visitors should not name staff without permission or share personal staff accounts and information.

Maintaining professional and personal boundaries

Some of our staff use social media channels in a personal capacity. These accounts are not affiliated with the Trust and any posts should be viewed as their own. We also encourage patients or visitors not to follow or befriend our staff on their personal accounts.

Feedback and complaints

We value your feedback on our services. Whether you have positive experiences to share or wish to raise concerns, your input guides us in our continuous improvement efforts. Find out more on our feedback page.

Media contacts for journalists

Our press office handles all media enquiries and should be the first point of contact for journalists. Find out more on our press office page.

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