Discussion Forum Policy

Discussion Forum Policy

This policy should be read in conjunction with our user policy and privacy policy. If there is anything you do not understand, then please contact us. This policy sets out certain rules that will govern your use of the discussion forums including some guidelines that we hope you will find helpful. The discussion forums are only available to users registered with Frontier (" forum users "). Some specific discussion forums are further limited to specific user groups.

To become a forum user you must be registered as a member of Frontier.

The discussion forums are provided as a place for forum users to report information, seek advice and share ideas. Forum users are asked to respect other forum users and their rights.

1. This Discussion Forum Policy

Your access and use of the discussion forums is subject to your acceptance of, and compliance with the provisions of this policy and any other legal notices and/or instructions which may appear in the discussion forums (including in any messages or attachments posted on a discussion forum) from time to time.

IMPORTANT: By accessing and using the discussion forums you will automatically be taken to have read, understood and accepted this discussion forum policy. If you do not agree to be bound by this discussion forum policy, please cease to access any discussion forums. If you fail to observe any of the provisions of this discussion forum policy, we reserve the right, at our discretion and without notice, to remove or edit any messages and/or to exclude you (either temporarily or permanently) from the discussion forums, depending on the nature and severity of your breach.  This policy may be amended by us in our discretion from time to time, and any such amendments shall take effect as soon as they are posted on Frontier. We therefore suggest that you review it periodically.

2. Rules for using the Discussion Forums

• General behaviour 
  Forum users must not transmit to any discussion forum ("post ") any message or reply (including attachments) ("message"), or knowingly receive via a discussion forum ("access") any message that is unlawful, illegal, fraudulent, offensive, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortuous, indecent, obscene, defamatory, invasive of another’s privacy, or discriminatory whether racially, ethnically, sexually, religiously or on grounds of age, disability, sexuality or otherwise, or which may incite or instruct any person or organisation to undertake such activities. 
• Use of Language
  Forum users must not post or access messages containing language that is in any way unlawful, threatening harassing or offensive. This includes the use of swear-words, bad language and offensive nicknames. 
• Breach of Confidence
  Forum users must not post or access messages that might in any way breach the confidence of another individual. For example, an email received from an individual cannot be placed on a discussion forum without first obtaining that individual’s consent. 
• Breach of Intellectual Property
  Forum users must not post or access messages that might in any way infringe any patent, trade mark, trade secret, copyright, database right or other similar right of any person. 
• Impersonation
  Forum users must not impersonate any person or identity, falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or organisation or disguise the origin of any content of a message. 
• Viruses
  Forum users must not post or access messages that might contain computer viruses or any other malicious computer code, or programs designed to interrupt, destroy alter or limit the functionality of any computer software, hardware, or telecommunications equipment. 
• Illegal and Harmful Activities
  Forum users must not post or access messages relating to (or including links to) pirated software (including computer games), counterfeit goods or any other material which is, or might reasonably considered to be, illegal or otherwise harmful. 
• Pornography
  Forum users must not post or access messages relating to (or including links to) any kind of pornography. 
• Permitted Use
  You may only use the discussion forums for either an organisations lawful purpose(s) or your own personal non-commercial use. You must not post any messages containing or including links to any overt advertisements or promotional materials, or otherwise use the discussion forums overtly to generate personal business from other forum users. 
• Patient Confidentiality
  Patient confidentiality must be respected at all times. Information identifying individual patients must never be disclosed on Frontier. This includes information from which such patients could be identified, either on its own, or taken in conjunction with other information which may be publicly available. Information provided by patients to the health service is provided in confidence and must be treated as such. The same legal, professional and ethical considerations apply to the release of information on Frontier as would apply to the release of information to any other public forum. Key identifiable information includes but is not limited to: patients name, address, full post code, date of birth, pictures, photographs, video, audio-tapes or other images of patients, NHS number and local patient identifiable codes or anything else that may be used to identify a patient directly or indirectly. For example, rare diseases, drug treatments or statistical analyses which have very small numbers within a small population may allow individuals to be identified. Significant care must be taken if an anonymised case study is used. To ensure that the patient is not identifiable, anonymised information requires the removal of name, address, full post code and any other detail or combination of details that might support identification. In addition to the policies listed here, information sharing policies and data sharing policies from your trust or employer are always in effect and must be observed.

3. Your Personal Information

You are responsible for ensuring the safety of your personal information. We recommend that you do not include your home address, telephone number or other more sensitive personal information in any messages, unless you are entirely satisfied that such information should be made public. You are reminded that it is often not possible entirely to erase any information once it has been posted on any internet discussion forum, you must not include any personal information relating to any other person in any message.

4. Monitoring

In order to provide forum users with general support and advice in relation to their use of the discussion forums and for security and abuse-management reasons, we reserve the right to:

• access and monitor the use of discussion forums and any messages posted on them; and
• take whatever other steps we consider are necessary to protect our forum users, including editing or removing any messages or suspending or discontinuing any discussion forums. We do not undertake to monitor every message nor to monitor the conduct of every forum user, nor to use any particular level of care or skill if we do undertake such monitoring. Facilitators will access the discussion forums from time to time in order to help ensure that other forum users are adhering to this discussion forum policy. Forum users should report any posts to websupport@londondeanery.ac.uk to notify the web team of abusive or inappropriate posts. Users who contravene the rules of the discussion forum policy could face disciplinary action.

5. Liability and Disclaimers

Please read carefully the paragraphs entitled disclaimers in our user policy.

Please note that:

• we accept no liability in respect of the content of any messages, including the accuracy or truthfulness of any such messages or any responsibility for the consequences of your acting in reliance on such messages, nor do we endorse any opinions expressed by any forum users in any messages; 
• we cannot guarantee the prompt editing or the prompt or complete removal of any messages; 
• we reserve the right at our sole discretion to remove or edit messages from the discussion forums or to suspend or discontinue any discussion forums at any time for any reason; and 
• we reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to deny any forum user access to the discussion forums, without notice, for any breach of this policy.