Forum Rules
The following should be borne in mind when using the forums here:
The only moderator for the forums here is Dr Jeremy D P Bland. I will generally not interfere with postings in the general topic unless they are libellous/defamatory. Advertising through the forum is not permitted however and I will also remove material which I consider to be commercially sponsored. Users are expected to behave with respect and honesty and only to disseminate information which is true and correct in the light of their own knowledge. Persistent offenders may be barred from the site without warning.
If you see an invading advert on the site which I have not noticed and removed, please let me know. Sadly, there are occasional attacks on the site, mostly by individuals simply trying to post inappropriate adverts or phishing messages in the forums (the vast majority of which are automatically rejected by a spam filtering system - MOLLOM), but occasionally by more sophisticated hackers trying to distribute malware or insert their own advertising in the site as a way of making money, for example using Google adwords
Users can register with this site anonymously and all postings should be considered as originating with a non medical professional excepting any from myself and the two individuals who help me with the carpal tunnel clinic - Michael Nicholas and Emma Kaile. Any medical qualifications claimed by others posting here cannot be verified and should be treated with caution.
If you provide any health/medical information in these forums other than accounts of personal experience would you please quote the source/reference.
Patients using the 'Canterbury patients' forum to communicate with me - please note the following:
This forum is a highly experimental idea which raises issues relating to the confidentiality of communication between doctor and patient. If you are at all uneasy about holding a conversation with a doctor about your medical problem 'in public' then there are other ways of contacting me by mail, email or telephone which you are welcome to use. The fastest, non-website method, is by email. There can be a considerable time;lag in me answering telephone messages. Do not feel pressured to use this forum. Having said that, I hope that this form of communication will provide a truly shared documentary record of what we have said to each other which we can both refer back to and it offers considerable advantages in terms of convenience compared to the rather clumsy medium of voicemail, a method which is in any case vulnerable to breaches of confidentiality via the simple mechanism of dialling a wrong number. The website is configured in such a way that your comments and questions in the forum will be 'anonymous' to other members of the general public - AS LONG AS YOU DO NOT IDENTIFY YOURSELF IN YOUR USERNAME FOR THE SITE. If you have used a user ID which clearly says who you are then please think carefully before posting in the forum whether you are happy for whatever you say to be visible to the general public. I hope that in time the forum will build up into a question and answer database which will be of interest to others who are seeking answers to the same questions. If you have any thoughts on the ethical issues raised by conducting medical care in this way please feel free to post those too on the forum dedicated to website issues as it is a topic which is worthy of further exploration with the public.
You should also note that it is not a good idea to use your Canterbury reference number as your user id here - that number should be kept private.
Revision date - 6th October 2013
