WEDNESDAY 13 MAR 2013 11:53 AM

A PRESCRIPTION FOR PR

The furor recent over NHS’ PR budget comes just months after the Government increased its spending on communications, particularly for the NHS. In September of last year, the Cabinet Office highlighted health-related communications and PR programmes as a priority for the following year.

This morning, the BBC reported on Freedom of Information requests uncovering 82 in-house press officers and £3 million spent on agencies. A number of critics have called money spent on PR consultants and branding agencies a wasteful use of funds.

The attacks aimed at consultants who work with the NHS is likely unfounded. The PRCA points to its Healthcare Public Relations Code of Practice that requires all members to uphold ethical and accurate communications practice.

Projects like USP Creative's rebrand of the Alder Hey Children's Hospital and the Chelsea Children's Hospital branding were carried out by consultants. The Royal Free sought PR assistance in communicating the UK's first face transplant last year. Without such projects, in-house communicators would be unable to promote the individual brands of significant hospitals.

He responds:

Director general Francis Ingham says the NHS’ upcoming structural changes will require effective PR.

He adds, “PR provides a crucial tool in tackling health risks and explaining how the health service can help. Therefore it is perfectly sensible that some London NHS trusts have used PR consultancies to provide extra support for their PR activities when crucial specialist advice is necessary.”

CIPR CEO Jane Wilson noted the difficulty of communicating many of the capital’s unique health issues such as a higher rate of teen pregnancy, an ethnically diverse population and significant mental health problems.

She says, “NHS public relations professionals work directly with health care professionals to ensure that issues such as wellness and healthy living campaigns are properly communicated. These campaigns aim to save the amount of time and public money spent on public health issues which can prevented at source by information provision and the raising of awareness. In doing so, they make a contribution towards the £20bn of efficiency savings the NHS has been asked to find by 2015, but more importantly, they help keep Londoners healthy and happy.”