Dealing with abuse of practice staff on social media from patients
GPs and practice staff are increasingly facing abuse from patients posted on social media. If a member of our practice staff receives an unwanted online communication, we will take the following course of action:
- Keep a record of the post or message and try and identify the patient from that or other posts.
- Collect and record any other information that might help later, eg taking a screenshot or saving the post.
- Report any online abuse incident to the practice manager and/or Data Protection Officer (DPO) for investigation.
- Once we have identified the author of the online message and following investigation we may contact them to remove the message, by writing to them
- Depending on the circumstances, the process may involve contact with the police and the owners of the online platform where the abuse was carried out.
Removing patients from our practice list
Both practices and patients have the right to end a patient-doctor relationship that isn’t working. We have outlined the reasons for removing a patient from a GP list in relation to this policy.
- Where a patient’s online behaviour creates an irretrievable breakdown in the doctor-patient relationship, we have a right to remove the patient from our list. However, this course of action will be a last resort.
- Where an abusive communication contained a threat of violence, the practice can remove the patient immediately.
In other cases, the practice will issue the patient with a written warning that they risk being removed from the practice list. The warning lasts for 12 months.
