NHS Direct

Timescale: May 07 – April 09; October 09
Brief: Raise awareness and understanding of NHS Direct’s vision, strategy and plans through the press to support the organisation’s five year business plan

Objectives:
1.    Raise awareness and understanding of NHS Direct
2.    Generate coverage in professional magazines and national press
3.    Gain recognition as an integral part of the NHS

PR Strategy:
Refocus the work of the press department concentrating particularly on proactive press activity. Put in place a rolling plan of news stories.
Set up a more effective system to ensure reactive press is dealt with swiftly and efficiently
Establish NHS Direct as a source of health information, facts and figures

Plan:
Releases were issued particularly focussing on NHS Direct’s performance, new ventures, pilots and health advice
Fed into and informed news stories/features planned in the national papers
Contributed editorial to targeted consumer health magazines

Measurement and evaluation:
On average NHS Direct now gets about 350 mentions a month in the printed press

Results:
NHS Direct achieves 97% positive coverage