Author response
The purpose of our ‘comment’ piece was to generate interest in the new national social media guidance for ambulance employees and we therefore welcome the discussion this has generated. Although the authors of the article are communications specialists, it was reviewed and agreed upon by two medical directors prior to submission.
The guidance itself was written and reviewed by clinicians including doctors and paramedics, several of whom do not tweet corporately. It was further reviewed by the medical directors of all ambulance services, many of whom are also the Caldicott Guardians for their respective NHS trusts. We also received and included feedback from other allied health professionals.
Clinicians from every corner of the healthcare sector use social media. What ambulance services have done is to use it in a more corporate way than other sectors have to date, though we suggest that this is changing. We continue to welcome constructive commentary about our use of social media but hope that those who comment would accept that we also have the patients' interest as our top priority, which is why we have now produced this guidance. While we do not always agree with every view expressed, that does not mean that we have ignored those views.
We absolutely recognise that corporate accounts have not always gotten it right, which is why we have written the new guidance. We have taken on board comments from a range of clinicians and other interested parties and these views have helped us to develop the latest guidance which, we hope, shows we have addressed their concerns. The purpose of the guidance and training is primarily to protect patients but also staff. It clearly warns against so called ‘live tweeting’ and provides practical steps to avoid inadvertently revealing a patient's identity on social media.
We strongly recommend that people read the guidance at https://tinyurl.com/y4e4xrc8. It was endorsed by the chairs and chief executives of all the NHS ambulance trusts in England at the AACE meeting in April, and we hope this endorsement encourages staff to read and adopt it as good practice.