Terms of use

Oldham residents who visit the Greater Manchester Integrated Care Partnership website are now bound by fresh legal small-print that can shift overnight without warning. The Partnership, which runs www.gmintegratedcare.org.uk, says continued use equals acceptance of whatever wording appears on the day, so yesterday's permissions could be today's offence.

Anything you read, watch or download remains the Partnership's property unless a separate notice says otherwise. That means copying a paragraph into a WhatsApp group, printing a leaflet or reposting an image on Facebook could technically breach copyright unless you first secure written consent. The only free pass is strictly personal, non-commercial sharing, such as retweeting a post.

If you join the discussion threads beneath news stories, you shoulder the legal risk. The site demands a working email address, insists every fact you state is true, and warns that abusive or irrelevant remarks can be edited, deleted or used to bar you altogether. Children under 16 need parental clearance before they type a single word.

The small-print also blocks residents from airing individual grievances about local clinics, doctors or hospital wards in the comment boxes. Complaints must instead follow each service's own procedure, a rule that keeps the web forum general but may leave patients unsure where to turn when something goes wrong.

While the Partnership promises it has taken "all reasonable care" to keep information accurate, it accepts no liability for loss or inconvenience caused by errors, and it distances itself from the content of any partner sites it links to. In short, the site is offered as-is, and the legal burden sits squarely with the user.