Press release
NHS Bury campaign shortlisted for prestigious award
NHS Bury's 'Care about the Cost' campaign has been shortlisted for another prestigious national award, the PR Week Awards in the Corporate and Public category. It is the sole NHS campaign to make the finals.
It comes a month after the campaign - identified by orange banners and bus sides - was commended in the Good Communication Awards, for making an impact on the perceptions and behaviour of Bury people.
The Care about the cost campaign was launched in November 2010. The campaign urges patients to choose carefully which NHS service best meets their needs, whilst making sure that the limited NHS resources available to Bury are being spent wisely.
NHS Bury used a range of methods to reach local communities about the campaign. Methods included leaflets and posters, billboards and bus advertising, the internet and features within the press and media.
A centre piece of the campaign was a 12 meter high banner in a town centre location urging patients only to use A&E in an emergency and directing patients to the Bury Urgent Treatment Centre. There was also a billboard style structure at the entrance to Fairfield General Hospital’s A&E department. All of these communications efforts were backed up by an extensive community outreach programme, where thousands of leaflets were handed out to local people.
Early indications show that the campaign is paying off with less people going to A&E. Following the launch of the campaign, the daily average number of A&E attendances by Bury patients went from 171 attendances per day to 160 per day, this difference offers an estimated saving of around £900 per day. If the average daily cost reduction was maintained over a full year period, the full year savings achieved would be over £330,000.
More patients are also using the Bury Urgent Treatment Centre; and more patients are reporting that had they not gone to Bury Urgent Treatment Centre, they would have otherwise gone to A&E. This figure doubled between November/December 2010 and February/March 2011 from 500 to 1000 per month.
Other shortlisted campaigns in the Corporate and Public category are the Olympic Delivery Authority and Transport for London. The Awards ceremony will take place in London on October 25th 2011.
Paul Horrocks, Ex Manchester Evening News Editor and now Chairman of NHS Bury said: “I'm so very proud that we have been able to make such a local and national impact with such scarce resources. The PR Week Awards are the largest awards of their kind and they recognise and reward excellence in the field of communications. Our campaign has been aimed at making the most out of our local NHS and I’d like to thank our local communities for supporting us with the campaign. It obviously stood out, for all the right reasons.“
ENDS
Date: 22nd August 2011
For press & media enquiries: contact Caroline Dearden, Corporate Communications Manager on 0161 762 3106 or email communications@bury.nhs.uk
Notes to editors
For more information please visit http://www.prweekawards.com/