Following recent reports in the media, in relation to social media listening at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, we would like to share with you the statement that has been issued to the media on this matter.
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde media statement
We want to make absolutely clear that NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has never used private investigators to spy on patients and their families.
The practice we use, called social media listening, plays a key role in issues management for companies and organisations worldwide by offering access to publicly available online and social conversations through perfectly legitimate and internationally accepted software companies that are used by tens of thousands of private and public sector organisations every day, such as the Meltwater platform, which is used by more than 27,000 global customers including NHSGGC.
In monitoring public conversations surrounding our organisation through social listening, we erroneously reviewed public individual posts shared by the relative of a patient. This was an isolated case for which we have since apologised to the individual, and we have ceased all such monitoring.
Background note
Our decision to perform our searches via a social media listening tool was in response to a recommendation from the Scottish Government’s Oversight Board, which found that NHSGGC was at times slow in responding to activity on social media. The Oversight Board recommended that we should learn from other organisations in Scotland and across the UK, and take steps to more effectively monitor and respond to social media activity.