The following moderation guidelines relate to our main corporate social media channels. This includes Facebook, X (formerly known as Twitter), LinkedIn, YouTube, Nextdoor and Instagram.
These guidelines are in place to help create a safe place where you can engage with us, make comments, suggestions and ask questions.
Keep our guidelines in mind when submitting comments and direct messages to our social media channels.
We moderate comments, posts and messages and reserve the right to remove those which do not meet our moderation guidelines, or that do not meet the community standards of the social media platform. We do not use moderation to suppress legitimate, reasoned discussion, criticism or complaints.
Inappropriate comments or content may include:
We reserve the right to remove comments, at our discretion, deemed inappropriate at any time. Repeated breaking of these guidelines could result in the commenter being banned from viewing or commenting on our social media channels.
We use X, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram and Nextdoor as tools in help us communicate quickly, clearly and in an engaging manner to people who use our services and are interested in our work.
Our main official corporate channels are listed below. Social media pages that attempt to replicate our name, service, or branding should not be treated as trusted sources of information. Be cautious of malicious pages operating on channels where we do not yet have a social media presence.
@PTHBhealth (English)
@BIAPiechyd (Cymraeg)
Bwrdd Iechyd Addysgu Powys / Powys Teaching Health Board (English)
Bwrdd Iechyd Addysgu Powys (Cymraeg)
In addition to our main corporate channels listed above, individual services or projects may have a social media channel affiliated to the health board.
We use social media to publish a variety of content about Powys Teaching Health Board (PTHB) and our services. This includes:
Content we requote or share on social media does not imply endorsement. We may retweet news, links and observations we believe are relevant to the work we do.
Our decision to follow particular accounts does not imply endorsement. We follow accounts we believe are relevant to our work. This could include following the accounts of companies and other commercial enterprises, or their employees, who comment on NHS-related issues, or politicians from different political parties.
Our social media channels are managed by members of our communication team who are not able to provide clinical advice in response to your queries.
If you have a life-threatening emergency, call 999.
If you need urgent health advice and treatment that is not a life-threatening emergency, you can:
The main exception is where we undertaken a “social media takeover” by a qualified clinician. In these circumstances we will make sure that the role and credentials of the person providing the social media takeover are provided clearly.
Whilst our communications team cannot provide clinical advice, the information they share in proactive posts on our social media channels is based on clinical and professional advice from local and national clinicians and health care professionals.
We are committed to updating and monitoring our social media accounts during regular office hours, which are normally 9am to 4pm Monday to Friday except bank holidays.
We accept no responsibility for lack of service due to downtime of any social media channel or other utilities failure (e.g. electricity, telecommunications).
Due to the volume of traffic on our social media accounts, it is not always possible to respond. We encourage you to use other ways to contact us if your question or comment requires urgent attention.
If you message us with general enquiries, we aim to respond with ten working days.
This may include:
We regret that there will be situations where we cannot respond to your enquiry, for example because our communications team simply does not know the answer and/or it falls outside the roles and responsibilities of the health board.
Wherever possible we will signpost you to the relevant department to handle your query.
Our engagement and communication may use the information you provide to us in comments, posts and messages to help them signpost you to the relevant department or service. This may include sharing the information contained within your post with the relevant department or service. Information about how we process your information can be found in our privacy statement.
To resolve your query, there may exceptionally be occasions on which we request personal information or evidence to verify your identity to direct your enquiry.
You need to be aware that any information or evidence you share with us by a direct message may be used by your social media provider in line with their privacy policy and terms and conditions.
Please contact our patient experience team if you have complaints or concerns the care you have received or about a member of staff.
So that we can protect your confidentiality and look into the issues that you have raised we ask that you contact our patient experience team if you have complaints or concerns about the care you have received.
Please contact our Freedom of Information team if you would like to make a request for information in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act.
Please contact our Press Office with any media enquiries.
Some of our staff post on social media under their own names or pseudonyms. Despite their professional affiliation with PTHB, their social media posts do not represent the official policy or opinion of PTHB or our Board and should be considered the product of each individual as a private citizen.
All PTHB staff are asked to ensure that their social media activity reflects the All Wales Social Media Policy for the NHS in Wales.