I try to avoid covering the same topic, two days running as I am aware of the diversity of interests you all have...
... but, I got a deluge of response yesterday when I turned a critical eye on the poor performance of the DHNSE comms.
System leaders and communications people contacted me, all saying pretty much the same thing...
... there are great stories of NHS successes, out there but local comm’s people are bullied into silence because of a corporate strangle-hold from the centre.
Here is an email, typical…
___________
Thank you for your newsletter today, and for giving NHSE/DH comms some flack.
I’d would like to stand up for the comms teams across the country. We work in difficult and very restrained times.
You may know all of this, but just in case….
Since the start of Covid, we have not been able to do any positive media or respond to enquiries without the approval, and very often correction of the national NHSE/I media team.
As time progressed, this remained but extended beyond us talking about anything Covid, to talking about anything at all.
Recently another layer has been added. If we want to do anything we have to get the approval of:
The system comms lead,
then a regional NHSE/I team
and finally the national NHSE/I people…
When we have a tight turnaround that can be murderously slow and I’m left dealing with very junior members of that team with little or no frontline experience.
In their infinite wisdom they have recently decided to restrict our responses to media enquiries to two sentences.
Yes you read that right, TWO SENTENCES!
Quite often the national team come back beyond the deadline and Trusts are left apologising to the journalist and pandering to them to calm them down.
And woe betide you doing anything without that approval. I did once and had them come down-on-me challenging on a number of fronts.
I feel like I am Alexei Navalny and NHSE/I is Putin’s government…..
I am a communications professional, with nearly 25 years experience, most at a very senior level, yet I’m not trusted to guide my organisation through choppy waters or respond to a simple media enquiry.
Frustrated wouldn’t come close to how this feels to me and the majority of my peers on a daily basis.
Simon Enright [Recently departed NHSE head of coms - Ed] had no frontline provider experience and neither do his successors. They believe that control of comms across the NHS is the way forward, and there seems to be no sign of this letting up.
I could go on, but I think you get my point.
We have mountains of stats and case studies to feature NHS success, but it is hard work getting approval to do anything about it.
We sometimes find ways around it, such as using our social media channels, but if they find out, you’ll ‘get a call’…
Keep lifting the lid!
__________
Just pause and think about that for a moment… it’s horrible isn’t it and I can promise you it is not a one-off. I have had to change bits of the email to make sure the author wasn't identified as they were worried about reprisals.
May I point out; this is our-NHS, not the Tory Party’s, not No19's and not BoJo’s.
We pay for it and work in it for our families, our friends. We build careers in spite of the system and do it because we care. The NHS is as much a part of our communities as the stripe in the tooth paste.
What happens, good or bad, is owned by us all. Not a handful of people in London who have no idea what it’s like to wipe a bum or console a grieving relative.
We need a new, national comm's policy how about:
All comm’s leads should be targeted to get five NHS success stories a month, into their local/regional press.
All chief executives should hold a confidence building lunch with the local media every month and ensure journalists have the bosses number on their speed dial.
Local staff should be featured and their successes turn them into celebrities.
Local radio and TV should be offered studio space in hospitals, alongside hospital radio and if what they broadcast embarrasses the government, let HMG explain why.
Comm's leads encouraged to network and develop regional strategies to contextualise national messages and develop narratives around key policy areas such 'come back to the NHS it's safe and ready for you'.
I do not want another film of St Thomas' Hospital (Sorry Tommy's) thanks. We want to see our local Trust, with local people telling it like it is.
The NHS does not exist to put screens around poor policy, neither is it there to bandage politician's slipping ratings.
It's time for the Whip-Cracker to sort out a grown-up national comm's policy and clear out the bullies in the Aegan Stable that is her press office.
>> I'm hearing - I've upset Virgin's Nic Chambers-Parks, who delights in the title 'head of comms and marketing people' (I wonder how many he's sold this week!) Anyway he wants me to point out; Virgin operates at a loss and doesn't send any money to tax havens. That makes me think they might fall foul of the CQC's financial viability guidance? However, this article tells us Virgin paid no corporation tax even though their profits from NHS contracts rose to £8m on £200m turnover. You be the judge.
