Please do not name individual specialists or treatment centres

[EndoUK_Comms]

Hi everyone,

We would kindly like to remind forum users to not mention the names of individual specialists or treatment centres on the forum.

We understand that whilst it is important to be able to express your opinions on your treatment we would greatly appreciate it if you do so without naming specific healthcare facilities or specialists on the message board.

Additionally, we are also aware that one person's experience and needs of a consultant can hugely differ from another. It is therefore our policy to take down any information that we come across regarding specific consultants or healthcare professionals.

We do understand that it can be challenging to find an appropriate consultant in order to ensure the best treatment for you. Therefore we recommend that women seek out institutions that have been peer-reviewed by other medical professionals and deemed centres of excellence. We feel that a good place to start looking for this information is through the BSGE website.

bsge.org.uk/ec-BSGE-acc...

The BSGE accredited specialist endometriosis centres have consultants who are specialists in the field of endometriosis.

We have a team of moderators checking the forum daily to ensure that our no-naming policy is enforced. If you come across other threads on this message board where the specialists and treatment centres are being named, please report the post using the report button that should be visible underneath it.

Should you make a post that names a specialist or treatment centre or asks for other forum members to recommend specialists or treatment centres, you will be sent a warning and your post will be removed. On this forum we have a standard 3-strike disciplinary system. "Strikes" are assigned in response to inappropriate behavior on the forum. If a forum user receives 3 strikes on the Health Unlocked forum within a 6-month time period, they will be removed from the forum.

We are a very small charity and it takes up a lot of time and resources to moderate the Health Unlocked forum; therefore we really appreciate the cooperation of the forum users when it comes to honoring our code of conduct.

Thank you for your co-operation.

All the best,

Endo UK

[janes8650]

I disagree with the fact that there are legal consequences for the charity. You should look for proper legal advice, as you do not have any at the moment it seems. I do not think there are any instances of charities being sued based on what is written on public forums about doctors.

Finding a proper specialist is probably the most important thing these boards can do for patients; answering questions isnt going to help anyone in the long term, but helping them find the proper doctor will.

This decision is a major error by the charity; all content should be freely accessible, and you should find proper legal help to advise you on how to be safe legally.

[Impatient]

It's not an ideal situation Jane- but I would imagine there is precious little enough funding to waste a single penny on unnecessary legal fees- we can use private messages without naming names on the pubic forum.

It would not be worth while risking the wrath of any medical staff who do decide to sue. It would end up with this forum closed, the charity in all likelyhood being forced to shut up shop- all for the sake of one or two individuals who decided to post something which someone took offense to and kicked off about. Just not worth it.

The rules are there and we agree to them when we become members of the forum, and speaking personally - I would much rather money raised for helping with spreading endo awareness and giving patients a supporting phone help line, does go on that- rather than on lining the already over stuffed pockets of lawyers.

There are at least half a dozen or more other endo forums around- many not attached to charities- but are privately run. If they don't have quite so much at stake- then it may be possible to discuss individual medical staff and locations on those forums.

Or you could set up your own blog or forum or post a request on social media naming names- that's your prerogative.

The rules on this forum are ones we have all agreed to abide by, and so we must try to do that.

[Lilly83]

I recommended a surgeon on here the other day, sorry I hadn't realised we couldn't, will be sure not to in future

Lilly

[Hidden]

Eeek sorry, I have mentioned my surgeon and the hospital a couple of times on here. I am sorry for the mistake, it will not happen again.

[ladybird7]

I mentioned a treatment centre earlier today but have removed it now - sorry