Departmental accreditation process terms and conditions

The British Society of Echocardiography ("BSE") is offering any Echocardiography Department in the UK ("Department") the opportunity to apply for accreditation in accordance with these guidelines ("Applicant"). The BSE grants such accreditation on a purely voluntary basis ("Accreditation"). There may be other Departments which have not sought Accreditation but which offer an excellent echocardiography service. The decision of the BSE to grant accreditation to a Department is only an indication of the BSE's opinion of the standard of that Department. The BSE does not intend the outcome of the Departmental Accreditation process to be relied upon by any person under any circumstance. This shall include, but not be limited to, any Department, any individual medical practitioner, including GPs, any patient, referring health authority and any member of the public. The Accreditation shall be based on sufficient information being provided to the BSE by Applicants in using the online application process in conjunction with an inspection of a Department.

The BSE cannot guarantee, or be liable in respect of, the quality, efficacy or performance of an Applicant and/or Department either prior to Accreditation or otherwise.

Accreditation of an Applicant or Department shall be determined by all relevant information provided by such Applicant or Department and it is the responsibility of that Applicant or Department to ensure that such information is accurate and up-to-date. The BSE shall not be liable in respect of any decisions made based on such information received.

The BSE has the right to suspend a Department's accredited status under the following circumstances:

• If it has reason to believe that that the safety of the public, or the public interest is seriously endangered. The BSE may suspend a Department while it decides whether or not to withdraw approval, where it has decided to withdraw approval but before the decision takes effect, or while any appeal is pending
• If it believes that its reputation is being damaged or likely to be damaged in any way whatsoever as a result of Accreditation of a Department
• If a Department or any member of such Department is subject to any investigation, formal or otherwiseIf it does not reasonably consider a Department to be worthy of Accreditation, for any reason whatsoever

The BSE may remove a Department's accredited status in the following circumstances:

• If it has reason to believe that that the safety of the public, or the public interest is seriously endangered
• If it believes that its reputation is being damaged or likely to be damaged in any way whatsoever as a result of Accreditation of a Department
• If a Department or any member of such Department is subject to any investigation, formal or otherwise
• If it does not reasonably consider a department to be worthy of Accreditation, for any reason whatsoever

A department whose Accreditation has been suspended or removed may appeal the decision, following the procedure laid down in section 8 of the departmental accreditation document.

The BSE may inspect an Accredited Department at any time during the period of Accreditation following reasonable notice.

Data protection

The BSE shall comply with the provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998 ("DPA") and, to the extent that it is a Data Processor (which has the meaning given to it under the DPA), it shall put in place:

Appropriate technical and organisational measures against the processing of Personal Data (which has the meaning given to it under the DPA) and against unauthorised, accidental or unlawful access to the Personal Data (having regard to the state of technological development and the costs of implementing any such measures) as well as reasonable security programmes and procedures for the purpose of ensuring that only authorised personnel have access to the Personal Data processing equipment and that any persons whom it authorises to have access to the Personal Data shall respect and maintain due confidentiality;

A level of security programmes and procedures which reflect: the level of damage which may be suffered by a Data Subject (which has the meaning given to it under the DPA) to whom the Personal Data relates as a result of unauthorised or unlawful possession of the Personal Data; and the state of technological development and the costs of implementing such procedures and programmes; and

As required by the DPA, such security programmes and procedures which specifically address the nature of any Sensitive Personal Data (which has the meaning given to it under the DPA).

The Applicant acknowledges that it shall comply with the relevant data protection statement as set out in the online application process form 1.

 

Departmental accreditation website terms and conditions

By accessing this website you agree to these terms and conditions (the"Terms"). If you do not agree to them you may not use this website and should leave it immediately.

You must agree not to impersonate any other person or department or to use a false name or a name that you.

The checklist is a focussed indicator of suitability for departmental accreditation in a few representative areas. Fulfilling the checklist requirements does not does not guarantee that a department will be eligible for accreditation. A successful checklist report is not equivalent to BSE departmental accreditation are not authorised to use.

By using this site you agree to comply with, and be bound by, these Terms.

We may from time to time change these Terms at our sole discretion. By using this Website after any such change(s), you agree to comply with, and be bound by, the Terms as changed.

Limited Licence

We grant you a limited, revocable, and non-exclusive licence to access and make personal use of the Website. Please note that you may not frame, link to, or utilise any framing or linking techniques to enclose the Website or any portion thereof without our prior written consent which may be withheld in our absolute discretion.

The limited licence set forth in this section does not include the right to:
a. modify or download the Website or its contents (except caching or as necessary to view content);
b. make any use of the Website or its Content other than for its intended purpose relating to departmental accreditation ;
c. create any derivative work based upon either the Website or its Content;
d. collect account information for the benefit of another party;
e. use any meta tags or any other "hidden text" utilising our name or the Trade Marks without our express written consent; or
f. use software robots, spiders, crawlers, or similar data gathering and extraction tools, or take any other action that may impose an unreasonable burden or load on our infrastructure.

You are granted a limited, revocable, and non-exclusive right to create a hyperlink to the home page of the Website for personal, non-commercial use only. A website that links to our Website may:

a. link to, but not replicate, our Content;
b. not imply that we are endorsing such website or its services or products;
c. not misrepresent its relationship with us;
d. not contain content that could be construed as distasteful, obscene, offensive or controversial, and may contain only content appropriate for all ages;
e. not portray us or our products, services or Items, in a false, misleading, derogatory, or otherwise offensive or objectionable manner, or associate us with undesirable products, services, or opinions;
f. not use any Trade Mark without our prior written consent; and
g. not link to any page of the Website other than the home page. We may, in our sole discretion, request that you remove any link to the Website, and upon receipt of such request, you shall immediately remove such link.

Any unauthorised use by you of the Website terminates the limited licence set forth in this section without prejudice to any other remedy we may have provided for by applicable law.

Copyright

All content available on the Website, including, but not limited to, text, graphics, logos, button, icons, images, audio clips, data compilations, and software, and the compilation thereof (the "Content") is the property of ourselves, our affiliates, our partners or our licensors, and is protected by UK and international copyright laws.

The trade marks, logos, and service marks displayed on the Website (collectively, the "Trade Marks") are the registered and unregistered marks of ourselves, our affiliates, our licensors or our partners, in the UK and other countries, and are protected by UK and international trade mark laws. All or any other trade marks not owned by us, our affiliates, our partners or our licensors that appear on the Website are the property of their respective owners, who may or may not be affiliated with, connected to, or sponsored by us.

Except as set forth in the limited licence in the section entitled "Limited Licence" , or as required under applicable law, neither the Content, the Trade Marks, nor any other portion of the Website may be used, reproduced, duplicated, copied, sold, resold, accessed, modified, or otherwise exploited, in full or in part, for any purpose without our prior written consent.

Third Party Links

We are not responsible for the content of any off-Website pages or any other websites linked to or from the Website. Links appearing on the Website are for convenience only and are not an endorsement by us, our affiliates or our partners of the referenced content, product, service, or supplier. Your linking to or from any off-Website pages or other websites is at your own risk. We are in no way responsible for examining or evaluating, and we do not warrant the offerings of, off-Website pages or any other websites linked to or from the Website, nor do we assume any responsibility or liability for the actions, content, products, or services of such pages and websites, including, without limitation, their privacy statements and Terms. You should carefully review the Terms and privacy policies of all off-Website pages and other websites that you visit.

Representations and Warranties: Limitations of liability

We make no representations or warranties of any kind whatsoever, express or implied, in connection with these terms or the Website, including but not limited to warranties of satisfactory quality, non-infringement or fitness for a particular purpose, except to the extent such representations and warranties are not legally excludable.

You agree that, to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, we will not be responsible or liable (whether in contract, tort or otherwise), under any circumstances, for any

a. interruption of business;
b. access delays or access interruptions to the Website;
c. data non-delivery, mis-delivery, corruption, destruction or other modification;
d. loss or damages of any sort incurred as a result of dealings with or the presence of off- Website links on the Website;
e. computer viruses, system failure or malfunction which may occur in connection with your use of the Website, including during hyperlink to or from third party websites;
f. any inaccuracies, omissions or misleading, false or deceptive statement in the content; or
g. events beyond our reasonable control.

Further, to the fullest extent permitted by law we will not be liable for any direct, indirect, special, incidental, or consequential damages of any kind (including lost profits) related to the Website regardless of the form of action whether in contract, tort (including negligence), or otherwise, even if we have been advised of the possibility of such damages. In no event shall our maximum aggregate liability exceed one hundred pounds (£100.00). Because some countries do not allow the exclusion or limitation of liability for consequential or incidental damages, in such countries, our liability is limited to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law.

Disputes

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, any dispute relating in any way to your visit to the Website and any purchase by you of any Items from ourselves shall be submitted to confidential arbitration in London, except that, to the extent you have in any manner violated or threatened to violate our intellectual property rights, we may seek injunctive or other appropriate relief in the English Courts, and you consent to exclusive jurisdiction and venue in such courts. Arbitration under this agreement shall be conducted under the rules then prevailing of the International Chamber of Commerce. The arbitrator's award shall be binding and may be entered as a judgement in any court of competent jurisdiction. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, no arbitration under this Agreement shall be joined to an arbitration involving any other party subject to this Agreement, whether through class arbitration proceedings or otherwise. To the extent arbitration is not permitted by applicable law, any dispute relating in any way to your visit to the Website shall be submitted to an appropriate court or other judicial body in London, and all applicable provisions of this section shall apply.

General

You acknowledge and agree that these Terms, together with our Privacy Policy, constitute the complete and exclusive agreement between us concerning your use of the Website and supersede and govern all prior proposals, agreements, or other communications.

If any provision of these Terms is held to be illegal, invalid or unenforceable in whole or in part, then these Terms shall continue to be valid as to the other provisions and the remainder of the affected provision. Any waiver of any of the provisions of these Terms by Ourselves shall not be deemed a waiver of any subsequent breach or default and shall in no way affect the other provisions of these Terms.

No failure to exercise and no delay on the part of either party in exercising any right, remedy, power or privilege of that party under these Terms and no course of dealing between the parties shall be construed or operate as a waiver thereof, nor shall any single or partial exercise of any right, remedy, power or privilege preclude any other or further exercise thereof or the exercise of any other right, remedy, power or privilege. The rights and remedies provided by these Terms are cumulative and are not exclusive of any rights or remedies provided by law. Time shall not be of the essence of these Terms as regards any of the times, dates and/or periods mentioned herein.

Nothing contained in these Terms shall be construed as creating any agency, partnership, or other form of joint enterprise between us.

We reserve the right to change these Terms at any time and we encourage you to revisit these Terms periodically to ensure that you are at all times fully aware of our Terms. Any changes are effective immediately upon posting to the Website. Your continued use of the Website constitutes your agreement to all such Terms.

We may, with or without prior notice, terminate any of the rights granted by these Terms. You shall comply immediately with any termination or other notice, including, as applicable, by ceasing all use of the Website.

We reserve the right to refuse to supply Items to any person for any reason whatsoever, to withdraw any Items from the Website at any time and/or remove or edit any materials or content on the Website. We will not be liable to you or any third party by reason of our withdrawing of any Items from this Website whether or not such Items have been sold; removing or editing content on the Website; refusing to process a transaction or unwinding or suspending any transaction after processing has begun.

If you have any questions regarding these Terms, please contact us.

Governing Law

Your use of this Website and any purchase by you of any Item from Ourselves shall be governed by English law and you hereto submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts.

Rules for the forum on the departmental accreditation website

• No names of patients, in any circumstance.
• No names of staff/companies unless first agreed with the individuals concerned.
• No advertising for financial gain
• No inappropriate language or character deformation.
• No vacancy advertising

Abuse of this site may result in exclusion if the content of your contribution is found to be inappropriate by the webmaster or forum administrator.