NHS Forums are launched! - A few fair rules to follow please - MUST READ

Welcome aboard NHS Forums. The new unofficial forums for the National Health Service. Bar a few Facebook groups, which is providing Facebook with a lot of data that they perhaps should not be in charge of! (but that's for another thread), there aren't many, if any, independent forums and places you can discuss NHS in all its glory, and any other discussion you may not feel safe talking about using your true name, true email address, etc.

So I created this forum so we can all do that as staff, and / or as patients. As some of us are both!

HELP RUN YOUR OWN NHS FORUM CATEGORY ON HERE - PERHAPS A STAFF ONLY ONE FOR YOUR HOSPITAL?​

There will be more local forums and hospital-specific forum categories and we will need staff from each hospital to help moderate and administrate. So please send me a PM if you'd like to express your interest in helping run your own hospital sub-forum. Perhaps even matching your Facebook roles, if you have a group going already (I know my hospital has one that I'm a member of for sure).

The NHS Forums are new and are growing​

So any suggestions you have, then please post them in the suggestions forum.

NHS FORUMS RULES​

As a posting member you agree to these rules, no exceptions! Members will get a couple of warnings and then a temporary ban. Too many of those in a short space of time and your account will get permanently banned. We understand that we all work in a very stressful environment so I'm eager to help others be their best selves, and not be their enemies.

1. BE NICE TO OTHERS​

Treat others as you would like to be treated yourself. No exceptions!

2. NO SPAM​

No link building, selling, SEO tactics or anything else at all allowed. Links that regular members provide will be trusted, so please be sure to look out for the badges we will soon have in place showing who is who.

3 NO LINKING TO OTHER NHS FORUMS OR BLOGS OR GROUPS​

We don't know who owns what groups, pages, and forums. And they could change hands over time too. So we are unique and not connected to anything, so we would like to keep it that way. So please don't link to other forums and groups without written consent from a member of staff on here.

4. NO PROVIDING HEALTH ADVICE SPECIFIC TO SOMEBODY ASKING!​

We don't mind all health being discussed, that surely is a good thing for all. But we are NOT here to provide advice to patients' individual needs. In an emergency, members need to call 999, otherwise go see your own local GP. That said, we don't mind general health procedures being discussed as all education is brilliant when users really wish to engage well and really get deep with theories and best practices as well as the official line we tow as NHS Workers.

6. THESE RULES MAY BE UPDATED AT ANY TIME WITHOUT PRIOR NOTICE​

So please do check back every now and again to check and make sure you still agree to abide by them.

7. NOBODY NEEDS TO IDENTIFY THEMSELVES TO OTHERS​

You can all choose your own usernames and make them nicknames, avatars, online personas, or your real name. Use your real name at your own risk. Although we can change your name for you at a later date, there would already be records of what was posted under your name beyond our control (such as archive.org - the internet web archive service).

 

[Paul]

Done a bit more, the three main areas of the forum:-

NHS Forums | NHS News - News 'n' Reviews about National Health Service

NHS News from many News Sources including the NHS Themselves. NHS Forums | NHS News - News 'n' Reviews about National Health Service. NHS Forums | NHS News.

nhsforums.com

NHS Staff Forums | Forum for NHS Medical and Health Professionals

NHS Forums for NHS Staff. NHS Medical Professionals, health professionals. Find fellow NHS Staff on the forum daily. No matter which hospital or health trust or where you are in the country, these forums are for you. NHS Forums | NHS Staff Forums | Forum for NHS Staff and Employees UK - NHS...

nhsforums.com

NHS Patient Forum. Patient Access Forum | Patient-to-Patient Questions

NHS Forums | NHS Patient Forum. Welcome to the Patient Forum for the UK NHS that provides free healthcare for most of the UK. Patient Access Forums. NHS Patient Forums will expand over time into something that'll include all types of common healthcare issues and open discussions.

nhsforums.com

 

[Pete the Feet]

Seems fair enough! Thanks for making it clear.

 

[ppguknews]

Hi Paul, Thanks for creating this very useful resource. I think it would be ideal for Patient Participation Groups to use as a way of connecting with PPG colleagues across the country, if you think that would be appropriate. I currently publish a monthly newsletter for PPGs which has a small but dedicated following at the moment but is continuing to grow month by month.

The one thing I haven't found on this Forum is an "about" page. In the interest of transparency and before I recommend to PPGs is it possible for you provide more information about yourself and any others involved in this new venture?

Thanks
Mike Lally

 

[Paul]

We are part of a construction related network of forums and websites that already serve tens of thousands of registered gas engineers and electricians, and millions of monthly readers and subscribers (so already aware of implications of 'publishing' dangerous content) from all over the globe.

We use moderators and other staff who are all volunteers and are from within their respective topics and industries, and generally try to pay for the place using Google.

We are free from the red tape and slow evolution of governmental services, and are not owned or operated by anybody with any financial or other connection to any company, country, advice service from within the health industry.

Other than that we tend to keep personal information out of our businesses as we can be an easy target for trolls and undesirables and speak from experience when saying that that also helps keep our advice truthful honest and upfront. And totally genuine.

There will be more notices and warnings about the forum once we have more content, but it would be too offputting to have such things appearing on pages with no advice at all on them at the moment.

We will also develop processes and systems to help share important research information and discussion that perhaps keeps some things out the eyes of the new forum member. For example on our gas engineering forum we don't allow gas advice to be shared to unknown members. On our electrical forum we help apprentices earn their qualifications by providing a place for retired professors of electrical engineering to be a mentor (something all electricians must have experience in before being classed as qualified) of an apprentice where before our existence they would have needed to go physically find a local electrician to take them on for a while and suchlike.

I appreciate any referrals but perhaps you could tell me a little bit more about what you do?

 

[ppguknews]

Hi Paul
Thanks for that. Sorry I'm still a little unclear. When you say "We are part of a construction related network of forums and websites...." are you part a company that delivers that type of service or a group of volunteers? If a company, are you in a position to share the company name?

I think it's reasonable for anyone using this resource to understand who is managing the site and most websites/forums etc. usually have some sort of "about" section.

For my part , I have in the past been a member and chair of my local PPG. After several years I decided that I could best contribute to the PPG national agenda by producing a regular newsletter to try and help PPGs become more informed about the primary care sector.

Regards
Mike

 

[Paul]

The company name for this site is NHS Forums. We are 3 weeks old though give me time mate.

I don't mix up my properties that are in different industries so I won't be explaining much about my automotive forum properties or construction industry properties on this NHS property. And visa versa.

I've ran forums succefully since 1998. Have loads. Answer to nobody. The way I like it.

Anybody can come be part of here and we will shape it for what interest we get over the first 12 months. So let's see where this journey takes us.

I don't reveal my details as I've literally had members knock on my door back when domains needed addresses showing on files. Data protection is paramount to me for that reason.

About 70% of my new forums close after 5 years. If they haven't taken off by then they wont. So I transfer those software licences to new projects every year. Been doing that for about 15 years of my 20+ years.

Thanks for the information Mike. So the email is used to keep in touch with your customers then. I see. I'd personally register a domain for that you can still use Google system.

Search Google Workspace and use Gmail with your own domain.

Looks far more professional.

So how many members of your group do you have?

 

[Tattoo Zara]

I think that's fair.

This website should be of good use to everybody. Short of terrible Facebook groups, or X/Twitter circles full of trash, there is only official NHS channels and most don't work as this is the NHS we are talking about. Underfunded and over subscribed and not running at a profit at all.

So with Labour creating some new things that are more commercially led, this fits right in and we appreciate it. So thanks Paul.

If you're independent you don't need to provide credentials. The proof will be in the pudding.

 

[Pete the Feet]

I think it'll be a good shout. With it NOT being connected to NHS they won't shut it down once it starts to work like many services they do that with!!

And its commercial independence then means it should host good content that's opinion or research led discussion, should be allll goooood.

 

[Adele]

I am excited to see this grow, it'll be the first place of its kind for staff and patients! Fantastic idea!