North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust, Comms Support & Media Training
Overview
In August 2009, the North West Ambulance Service ran an exercise to test it’s preparedness for a worsening of a flu pandemic. A significant part of any NHS organisations’ crisis planning is its media handling processes. Unique was asked to contribute its media handling expertise to test and evaluate the Service’s reactions to media enquiries as a result of this simulated crisis.
The brief
Unique was asked to provide support for North West Ambulance Service (NWAS), which was running an emergency planning exercise around a theoretical worsening of an influenza pandemic. The exercise would simulate an unfolding sequence of events around increasing demand for the Ambulance Service at the same time as pressure was being placed on staff numbers.
What Unique did
Two Unique staff took part in the exercise, using four researched and agreed scenarios, carefully chosen to be realistic, significant enough to warrant the Service providing a spokesperson and the direct responsibility of North West Ambulance Service – so that no input from other services (for example the A&E of a hospital trust) was required.
Acting as journalists to simulate media interest in the unfolding events, Unique placed media enquiries with the communications team, requesting information and interviews. The interviews were then conducted by phone and in person throughout the course of the afternoon.
Unique held a debrief of all participants of the exercise, including the interviewees. The groups reviewed the filmed TV and recorded radio interviews and Unique’s consultants reviewed the performance, with input from the interviewees and their peers, and were able to offer a number of recommendations relating to individuals’ performances and the media handling.
Following the day of the exercise, Unique expanded on this, providing a full report of its contribution and further performance analysis and recommendations.
Outcomes
Unique helped the Service to put senior people through their paces, including those who would only be called upon to speak to the media in the event of others being unavailable. It delivered an assessment on each interviewee and the media handling from the communications team, together with a series of recommendations for examination by the Service in its review of the wider exercise.
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