Terms of use
Draft for solicitor review, 1 October 2026. Not legal advice and not yet in force. Text in [square brackets] is a placeholder or a question for the solicitor.
Pilot version. TraineeTrust starts as a closed pilot for GP trainees on the ICGP GP training schemes, reviewing GP practices first. These terms describe the pilot. Before we open more widely we will update them, with notice (section 14).
These terms are the agreement between you and [Company name] Limited ("TraineeTrust", "we", "us"), a company registered in Ireland (company number [number]), registered office [address]. They apply whenever you use traineetrust.[domain] (the "site"). Please also read our Community guidelines, Privacy notice and Complaints and takedown process, which form part of these terms.
1. What TraineeTrust is
1.1 TraineeTrust hosts reviews of medical training posts in Ireland, written by non-consultant hospital doctors (NCHDs) and trainees about posts they have worked in. A post is a job at a particular site, in a particular specialty, at a particular grade.
1.2 Reviews are the honest opinions of the doctors who write them. They are not statements of fact by TraineeTrust, and we do not check whether each opinion is correct. We do check who may join (section 4), and a person reads every review with text before it is published (section 7).
1.3 We are a hosting service under the EU Digital Services Act (Regulation (EU) 2022/2065). We do not write, commission or pay for reviews, and we never take payment from anyone to publish, remove, reorder or hide a review.
2. Who can use the site
2.1 During the pilot the site is closed. Only approved members can see reviews, scores or any other content about posts and sites.
2.2 Membership is open to doctors aged 18 or over who are GP trainees on an ICGP GP training scheme [Pilot: confirm whether recent graduates of those schemes can join]. Approved members can read and write reviews.
2.3 Consultants and other doctors who are not trainees on those schemes cannot join during the pilot.
2.4 Institution accounts (section 9) are not offered during the pilot.
3. Your account
3.1 You sign in with a link sent to your email or with a passkey. We do not use passwords.
3.2 You create your account when you sign up, and you can use it once we approve it (section 4). You may have only one account. You must not share it, sell it, or let anyone else use it.
3.3 You must give accurate information about yourself and keep your email address up to date. You are responsible for activity on your account unless it happened because of our failure.
3.4 You can delete your account at any time from the Account page. Deleting your account permanently deletes all your reviews. Scores and averages are recalculated without them. We cannot restore deleted reviews. Some records are kept for a limited time as described in the Privacy notice (for example, where a complaint or legal claim about a review is open).
4. How we approve members
4.1 When you sign up you give your name, your email address, and your GP training scheme and year. A TraineeTrust administrator checks by hand that you are a GP trainee on an eligible scheme [Pilot: describe how, for example personal knowledge or confirmation from the scheme]. Until we approve you, you cannot see content or post.
4.2 During the pilot there is no Medical Council register check and no colleague check, and accounts are shown as members, not as verified doctors. We never ask you to upload identity documents, payslips, contracts or certificates.
4.3 Before we open TraineeTrust more widely we may add a verification step, such as a check against the Medical Council register. We will tell you at least 30 days before it applies to you. If you do not want to complete it, you can delete your account.
4.4 If we find an account is fake or was used to impersonate someone, we close it and remove all its reviews.
5. Writing a review
5.1 Each review is about one post you worked in yourself. You may write one review per post per year you worked there.
5.2 When you submit a review you confirm: "This is my honest opinion of this post, based on my own time there. It contains no names, identifying roles or patient information." We store this declaration with the date and time.
5.3 Your review must follow the Community guidelines. In short: write about the job, not about people; never include patient information; and do not make allegations of wrongdoing. Serious concerns belong in the formal channels listed in the guidelines.
5.4 You give only the year you worked in the post. You may choose not to record your grade or post type. If you do, your scores count towards the specialty and site figures but not towards any grade's figures, and your review shows "Grade not given".
5.5 When reviews show. To protect reviewers, reviews of a hospital or other department (a specialty at a site) are shown only once that department has at least [3] published reviews. Until then they count towards nothing that is shown. Hospital-wide scores include only departments that have reached that number. Reviews of a GP practice are shown from the first one. Because most practices have one trainee at a time, your practice may be able to tell that a review is yours. Please bear this in mind, and follow the GP practice rules in the Community guidelines.
5.6 You can edit a review for 30 days after it is published. Edits are checked under the same rules, and we keep earlier versions.
5.7 You may add a site or a specialty that is missing while writing a review. A new site and its review stay hidden until an administrator approves the site. A new specialty at an existing site is shown once a second reviewer or a moderator confirms it.
5.8 You must not write a review:
- for a post you did not work in;
- on behalf of someone else, or in exchange for payment or any other benefit;
- about your own department or employer while you are in a management role there [Solicitor: wording];
- as part of a coordinated campaign to raise or lower a score.
6. Your content and the licence you give us
6.1 You keep ownership of what you write.
6.2 You give us a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide licence to host, store, copy, display, format, translate (machine translations are always labelled) and distribute your review on the site and in aggregate scores, and to remove or refuse it, for as long as it is on the site. This licence ends when you or we delete the review, except for copies kept in backups for a limited time and records we must keep under clause 3.4.
6.3 You waive, to the extent the law allows, any moral right to object to formatting changes or to the removal of a sentence under clause 7.3. We never rewrite your review in your voice.
6.4 You confirm that your review is your own work and that publishing it does not break any law or anyone's rights, including confidentiality you owe to a patient or an employer.
7. Moderation
7.1 When you submit text, an automated check (rules and an AI classifier) looks for names, roles, patient details, allegations and sensitive information. It may highlight a sentence and suggest a rewrite. It never decides on its own: if you submit anyway, a person reviews it.
7.2 During the pilot, a moderator reads every review that contains text before it is published, usually within 5 working days. Reviews with scores and facts only may be published without a moderator. We may hold a review and release it with others after the next changeover, so that a department cannot link it to one doctor who has just left.
7.3 A moderator may publish a review, ask you to edit it, publish it with a sentence removed, or reject it. We tell you the reason, which part of the guidelines or law it relates to, and how to ask for a second look (a "statement of reasons" under Article 17 of the Digital Services Act).
7.4 Where a review breaks the guidelines we apply strikes: first a warning, then a suspension of review posting, then account closure. Fabrication or impersonation leads to immediate closure and removal of all that account's reviews. We tell you each time and you can ask for a review of the decision.
7.5 You can challenge any moderation decision through the internal review set out in the Complaints and takedown process. [Solicitor: confirm whether TraineeTrust is an "online platform" under the DSA, and whether the micro/small enterprise exemption in Article 19 applies. We propose to offer the internal review and to name out-of-court dispute settlement bodies either way.]
8. Your anonymity
8.1 Your name and email are never shown to other members or to anyone outside TraineeTrust. Other members see only a "member" badge, the number of reviews and, where allowed, your grade band.
8.2 We never give your identity to an institution, employer, training body or anyone else because they ask, complain or threaten action.
8.3 We will disclose your identity only where the law requires it, such as an order of an Irish court. The Circuit Court can order a service to identify the author of an anonymous post that is alleged to be defamatory. Anonymity on TraineeTrust does not protect fabricated or defamatory content. Where the law allows, we will tell you before we disclose. [Solicitor: confirm the statutory basis under the Defamation (Amendment) Act 2024 and how to handle Garda requests under section 41 of the Data Protection Act 2018.]
9. Institution accounts and responses
9.0 Institution accounts are not offered during the pilot. Institutions can still report content to us by email (section 11). The rest of this section applies when they are introduced.
9.1 A hospital, practice or other employer can apply for an institution account. We verify that the applicant represents the institution, for example through an official email domain and a call to a published switchboard.
9.2 An institution account can post one public response under any review of its posts. Responses follow the same Community guidelines: no names of individuals, no patient information, and no attempt to identify the reviewer.
9.3 Institution accounts can see aggregate scores and trends for their own posts. They can never see who wrote a review.
9.4 Institutions can report a review under the Complaints and takedown process. They cannot pay for, and we will never offer, any service that affects reviews or scores.
10. Things you must not do
You must not:
- (a) pretend to be someone else or misstate your registration, grade or employer;
- (b) try to find out or reveal who wrote a review;
- (c) post personal data about anyone, including patients, colleagues and yourself;
- (d) scrape, copy in bulk, or reuse the site's content or data without our written permission;
- (e) interfere with the site, test its security without permission, or get around rate limits;
- (f) use the site to harass, threaten or retaliate against anyone;
- (g) submit notices or complaints you know to be unfounded.
11. Reporting content
Anyone can report a review or a response they believe is unlawful or breaks the guidelines. Members can use the report link next to it; anyone else can email [report email]. See the Complaints and takedown process.
12. Our responsibility to you
12.1 The site is free. We provide it with reasonable care and skill, but we do not promise it will always be available or error-free.
12.2 Reviews and scores are opinions of individual doctors and are only one source of information. Check important facts, such as rotas, pay and contracts, with the employer or training body before making decisions.
12.3 We are not liable for any loss that was not reasonably foreseeable, or for business losses. Nothing in these terms limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or for anything else the law does not allow us to limit. If you are a consumer, you keep all your rights under Irish consumer law, including the Consumer Rights Act 2022. [Solicitor: confirm whether a free service where users provide personal data falls within the Act's digital services provisions.]
12.4 You are responsible for what you write. If your review breaks these terms or the law and someone brings a claim against us because of it, you agree to cover our reasonable losses from that claim, to the extent the law allows. [Solicitor: consider whether an indemnity from individual doctors is proportionate or deters honest reviewers; option to drop.]
13. Suspending or closing accounts
We may suspend or close an account that breaks these terms, after telling you why and giving you a chance to respond, unless the breach is serious (for example fabrication, impersonation, or threats) or we are legally prevented from telling you. You can ask for an internal review of the decision.
14. Changes to these terms
We will give you at least 30 days' notice by email and on the site before a change that affects you takes effect, unless it is required sooner by law. If you do not agree, you can delete your account before the change takes effect.
15. Law and courts
These terms are governed by the laws of Ireland. The Irish courts have jurisdiction, but if you are a consumer living elsewhere in the EU you can also bring a claim in your own country's courts.
16. Contact
- General and account questions: [support email]
- Reports and complaints: [report email] and the report form
- Privacy and data protection: [privacy email]
- Single point of contact for users under Article 12 of the DSA: [dsa contact email], in English or Irish. You do not have to use an automated tool to reach us.
- Single point of contact for Member State authorities, the European Commission and the European Board for Digital Services under Article 11 of the DSA: [authority contact email], in English or Irish.
[Company name] Limited, [registered address], Ireland.