We believe that social media is an important part in how people live their lives.
At NEAS we’re adaptable and continually changing how we improve the way we work. We pride ourselves in being open.
We want our social media platforms to be a welcoming space where people feel comfortable to talk to us and each other. We ask that anyone engaging with our social media channels shows courtesy, kindness and respect for all other members.
How we use social media
Our main Trust social media accounts are accessed and monitored by our communications team, within office hours Monday – Friday 9am – 5pm. Posts are also scheduled to go live outside of these hours.
No medical professional has access to our accounts, so if you’re contacting us for a medical emergency please go to:
- 111.nhs.uk or call 111 if it’s urgent but not an emergency
- 999 for medical emergencies
If you follow us on social media, we do not automatically follow back. Being followed, using hashtags or mentioning other accounts does not imply endorsement of any kind.
We will retweet or share where we think it is useful or interesting but, again, this is not an endorsement.
Below is a set of house rules on how we use social media and how we expect people to use it too.
- We’ll confirm it's us.
Our official Trust accounts are:
- Facebook – North East Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust
- Twitter – @NEAmbulance
- Instagram – @neambulance
You’ll find some department-led accounts on Twitter, including:
- Able@NEAS – @AbleNEAS
- Commercial training – @NEASFirstAid
- Community resuscitation and development team – @NEASCommResus
- Education and training – @neas_meducation
- Emergency preparedness resilience and response – @NEAS_EPRR
- Engagement and inclusion – @NEAS_EDI
- Hazardous Area Response Team – @NEAS_HART
- Organisational development – @NEAS_OD
- Proud@NEAS – @NEASproud
- Research and development – @Research_NEAS
Our recruitment team also posts vacancies on LinkedIn – north-east-ambulance-service
- We’ll listen.
- We'll read all mentions, @replies, posts and direct messages sent to us. We can't always reply to every individual message we receive but we will get back to you, or pass your message on where appropriate.
- 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’ll treat each message with the politeness you’d expect if you were dealing with us face-to-face or on the telephone.
- We’ll follow people where we can. But this doesn’t mean endorsement.
- We’d like you to be polite. We know that sometimes things don’t go to plan and you’ll want to flag things up with us. But do remember, we’re human and the person monitoring the social media account is only trying to help. So are other people who use social media.
- Do not bully, harass, intimidate, defame, abuse or threaten any individual or organisation or use obscene or profane words.
- Anyone repeatedly engaging with us using content or language which falls into the above categories will be blocked and/or reported to the associated social media platform.
- Do not post comments that are personal – either to you or our staff. If you’ve a complaint to make against an individual we’ll look into it. We’ll point you towards our complaints page.
- Do not post comments that are mean-spirited or posted with the intention of causing offence or hurt.
- We’d like you not to spam or advertise. Our social media channels aren’t the place for followers to advertise. Making the same points over and over - otherwise known as spamming - isn’t for our social media. You’ll be better off making a complaint or contacting us another way so we can look into the issue for you.
- Do not post content that promotes discrimination based on the protected characteristics; age, disability, gender, martial status, pregnancy, race, religion and sexual orientation.
- We’d like you to not over-share. If you’ve got an issue we’ll happily look into it. But be careful not to post private information about yourself or others. Of course, most of the time social media works fine but on the rare occasion where you don’t stick to the house rules we reserve the right to delete offending content and block you from contacting us through that route.
- We also reserve the right to screen shot content and contact police.
- We won’t discuss any individual’s care through social media.
- We don’t deal with complaints through social media. There’s a process to follow here.
- 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.
If you have any questions about our social media or feel a post may be taken down unfairly email us at publicrelations