Director of communications What we learnt from Hospital Michelle Dixon Director of communications

What is Hospital? Documentary series showing the day-to-day achievements and challenges of the NHS Featuring staff and patients across five hospitals of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust Produced by Label1 for BBC Two, in partnership with Open University Series one – six, one-hour episodes Screened 11 January to 15 February 2017

Hospital

What did we want to achieve? Show amazing care, commitment, expertise and achievement Provide a more rounded view of how we work Explore the challenges and dilemmas we’re facing Encourage consideration of how we might tackle those challenges

What we did achieve Average of 2.5m consolidated viewers per episode Web visitors increased by a third – up to 12,000 a week and 8,500 views of eight associated blog posts Grew Twitter followers by 2,000 and trended during each broadcast – huge respect and affection for the NHS Over 500 news articles, vast majority positive Job applications increased by 50 per cent

And sparked debates on… Acute capacity vs demand Delayed discharges Outsourcing elective procedures Access to specialist services Service consolidation Care and resources for older people Care for overseas visitors Role of private care within NHS Care for ‘lifestyle’-related conditions Access to new treatments and innovations

Though… Some important issues not covered Some staff groups not featured Viewers wanted to engage – not fully able to capitalise on interest and desire for debate Related media coverage often simplistic and sensationalist

Key learning points – what helped Great production company – openness, trust, shared values and vision Long lead-in time – building relationships Very senior and key clinical buy-in Learning from others who had gone before Big focus on staff, patient and stakeholder engagement Trust press officer embedded with production team Clear and comprehensive information governance protocols Investment in our own content development Greater than anticipated role in the editing process Timing and luck!

And what would have helped… Knowing quite how much time it would take up, especially in editing phase Even greater senior and key clinical buy-in More focus on our own content More focus on how to make the most of the opportunities Understanding importance of direct relationship with BBC Two

The acid test Series two, filming starts 20 March…