To ensure that our website is as useful as possible we sometimes need to use cookies to help us gather information about how our website visitors use this site.
What are cookies?
A cookie (web cookie, or browser cookie) is a small file which is stored on your computer when you visit a website. These files are used by the website for a number of things but mainly to remember where you have been on the website and what you are searching for.
In some cases cookies also assist in any interaction between you and the website, for example when using social media such as facebook and twitter.
For a more details read more about cookies on Wikipedia.
How does Barnsley Hospital use cookies?
We actively use cookies to record how our visitors use and browse around our website. This helps us determine popular and unpopular pages and lets us know where we need to improve and what services we may need need to promote or update.
Once stored this information allows us to generate reports for our media team and the hospital leadership which are then used to improve our online information.
In order to achieve this we use the popular Google Analytics system which shows us what our most popular sections are, and how visitors browse around the site.
We use other types of cookies sparingly and only when needed. For example the comment form on our news articles uses cookies to ensure that your comment can be stored and referenced.
Occasionally, some “widgets” embedded on our website will set cookies associated with their domains, for example the CQC widget on our homepage, and embedded YouTube videos.
What do these cookies look like?
If you check your web browser settings for the cookies that our site has stored on your computer you should see:
| Cookie Name | Purpose | Cookie Identifier |
|---|---|---|
| Google Analytics | Tracks how you use our website, which areas you visit and how you found our website. Also tells us about how you accessed our site (if you used a mobile or PC for example) and how long you spent reading information | __utma __utmb __utmc __utmz |
| News comments | Used when you submit a comment to any of our news articles or blog posts. | comment_author_[random string] comment_author_email_[random string] |
Other ways your information may be tracked via our website
As we integrate with popular websites like facebook, twitter and YouTube it is important to note that these sites may also use cookies of their own which may sometimes be stored through our website.
For more information on these cookies you should view the respective privacy polices for each of these sites:
Questions and queries
If you have any further queries about how our website uses cookies then feel free to contact us.