We provide high quality healthcare services primarily to the residents of East Lancashire and Blackburn with Darwen, which have a combined population in the region of 530,000.
You can contact the Communications Team on 01254 732524
or email communications@elht.nhs.uk
Monday to Friday: 8:30am to 5pm
FOR OUT OF HOURS MEDIA ENQUIRIES PLEASE CALL THE MAIN SWITCHBOARD ON 01254 263555 AND STATE THAT IT IS A COMMUNICATIONS QUERY.
The Media Centre is an online resource for journalists wanting to find out about the latest news at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust.
The Communications Team at the Trust provides a comprehensive and efficient service to help journalists access information about East Lancashire Hospitals and answer questions about the Trust. We aim to respond positively and openly to all reasonable media requests. We are also keen to promote the work of Trust in the media, and actively promote exciting and ground-breaking developments.
Our Role:
Requests regarding photography, filming, or interviews with staff or patients, must be made through the Communications Team. Anyone filming or taking photographs without permission may be asked by Trust Security to leave the site immediately.
All proposals will be considered and accommodated where possible or appropriate. We have a duty to our patients to respect their privacy, therefore full consent must be obtained before any interaction with our patients. More information on this can be viewed below.
Proposals for filming should be e-mailed to communications@elht.nhs.uk and should include the following information:
We recognise that working with the media is an essential element of what we do – ensuring the delivery of an efficient and effective response can avoid conflict and misleading information, whilst safeguarding patients’ interests.
Act as a principal point of contact for all media activity
Respond quickly to requests for information or comment
Identify appropriately qualified and trained spokespeople to speak on behalf of East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust
Obtain patient and staff consent before releasing any information to the media except where a patient or former patient, or those acting on his or her behalf, has already invited the media to report on his or her treatment
Where the resulting media coverage contains inaccuracies or unfair criticism, East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust may comment in public, using factual information to correct misleading reporting
Encourage staff to co-operate with media requests where practicable whilst respecting their right to refuse to participate in filming or interviews
Encourage all staff to inform the Trust of any incident or forthcoming event which may lead to positive or adverse media coverage
Treat all media requests on their merits and without favour Rebut inaccurate, unbalanced and unfair media coverage.
East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust reserves the right to decline media requests where these conflict with operational requirements or patient or staff confidentiality. Information will not be issued to the media about any staff member or any patient without the consent, usually written, of the individual concerned.
If an adult patient is incapable of giving informed consent (as judged by the clinical team) it may nevertheless be in his or her best interest for basic information to be released – for instance to correct misleading speculation. In such cases the decision to pass on information will take account of the view of any next of kin, or failing that, carers or relatives with whom they are in contact. In the case of a child, a parent or guardian must give consent.
In order to protect patient confidentiality, we can only give out a 'Condition Check' for a patient if we are given the name, date of birth and address of the patient and have the patient's (or carer's) permission to release the information.
The Trust Communications Team (01254 732867) reserves the right to decline comment on any condition check if we so wish in respect of patient confidentiality.
For further information on the NHS Code of Practice regarding confidentiality, click here.
All proposals will be considered and accommodated where possible or appropriate. We have a duty to our patients to respect their privacy, therefore full consent must be obtained before any interaction with our patients. More information on this can be viewed here.
East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust is dedicated to protecting our patients. This includes ensuring our patients’ right to confidentiality is upheld at ALL times. To find out more about requests for filming and how we get consent for these, click here.