Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

The communications team manages communications with a range of audiences, including:

Staff: The team produce the weekly Midweek Message,  bi-weekly newsletter, Pulse, as well as maintaining the intranet and advising on internal communications projects.

Foundation Trust Members: The team produce the Foundation Trust member newsletter and organise a series of events throughout the year at which Foundation Trust members and members of the public can find out more about Hampshire Hospitals.

Patients and the local community: As well as organising events and advising teams on the best ways to keep patients informed and engaged, the Communications team produce the Annual Report and the Annual Plan summary each year.

Media: The Communications team work with the media to keep people informed about the work of Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, respond to enquiries and keep patients, staff and the local community informed in the event of a major incident.

Guidance

Arranging interviews with Foundation Trust staff, filming or photography
All requests for interviews, photographs and filming must be made through the communications team on 01256 313062 and consent forms should be completed where necessary (when any member or staff or a patient is filmed or photographed).  If you carry out any filming or photography without permission, our Security team will request that you leave the site.

Patient confidentiality
We rspect the need for confidentiality for patients and will not provide any information about a patient unless we are given permission from the individual or their next of kin, for example if the media ask for a condition check following an incident like a road traffic collision. All requests for interviewing or photographing patients must be made through the communications team.

Major incidents
Should a major incident occur the hospital has a contingency plan that includes arrangements for keeping the media, staff and patients informed. A dedicated media area will be established at either at Andover War Memorial Hospital, Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital or Royal Hampshire County Hospital, and media will be informed where this is. The Communications team will give regular updates on the situation. Depending on the type of incident, we will decide at the time on the best vantage point for photographs and filming and the appropriateness of interview requests.