CHANGES TO PRESS OFFICE 'ON CALL' SERVICE
The way West Midlands Ambulance Service provides it’s ‘on-call’
service to the media is changing with immediate effect.
The Press Office works very hard to try and
provide a fast and efficient supply of press releases to the media
throughout the Region. On average we issue over 100 press
releases a month regarding a wide range of incidents. Many of
these are provided outside of the normal working day through an
on-call system.
Unfortunately, due to pressures being
experienced by all areas of the public sector, we need to be more
realistic about the level of service that we can provide. To
that end, it will not be possible to continue to offer the current
level of service out-of-hours. However, please be assured
that we will continue to provide the fullest possible service that
we can. The following guidance is issued to all members of
the media for clarity about the arrangements, not all of which are
new and some of which reporters should already be aware of:
· In the first
instance, check the press releases that have already been
issued. They are e-mailed to you, can be found on the Trust’s
Newsline (0871 873 2892) and on our website, http://www.wmas.nhs.uk/.
· The Press Office
at Regional Headquarters in Brierley Hill is open Monday to Friday,
8.30am to 5.00pm. You can contact us on 01384 246 496 or via
e-mail at: pressoffice@wmas.nhs.uk.
The office is always manned between these hours and all media
enquires are welcome. If there is no answer, it is because we
are already dealing with enquiries. Please try again after a
few minutes.
· Outside these
hours, there is a press officer on-call for the Trust who will deal
with major incidents that they have been alerted to by the Trust’s
Emergency Operations Centre. This person is not at
work and not in the office.
· Because of this,
the press officer will not be able to respond as quickly as during
weekday office hours.
· The principle
role of the on-call press officer is to deal with major incidents.
(A major incident is an event resulting in mass casualties and a
disruption to otherwise normal civilian life affecting a large
geographical area.) The on-call press officer may also be able to
answer enquiries relating to current incidents. Enquiries
relating to previous days, less serious incidents, “phishing” for
news (eg. “Is there anything to report” or “we have just seen an
ambulance going past”) will not be dealt with until the next
working day when the press office is open.
· If the on-call
press officer does not answer the phone, leave a message listing
your enquiry – the more details the better – the Trust deals with
over 2,500 emergency calls every day. Please ensure you also
leave YOUR out-of-hours contact details. Where appropriate,
the on-call press officer will try and find out details of the
incident. Otherwise and, depending on the nature of the
enquiry, you may be asked to ring back during weekday office
hours.
· Only one call is
required about an incident. If you have not received an
answer to your query it is because the information is not yet
available. We cannot always contact crews immediately.
It may be that they have been sent to another 999 call immediately
after coming clear from the incident you are interested in.
This is especially so during the winter months. The press office
cannot interrupt the lifesaving work of our medical
staff.
· Do not ring the
on-call press-officer outside weekday office hours unless the
circumstances are exceptional or if it is regarding a major
incident as defined above. In the event of a major incident, the
on-call press officer will be aware of it and will comment as soon
as it is appropriate to do so.
· All journalists
should already be aware that the Ambulance Service never gives out
the name or address of a patient. Equally, we do not do
condition checks; once the patient is handed over to the hospital
that is the end of the Trust’s involvement in the care of the
patient.
· All press
releases will give the full details that we have or are able to
release about the incident. If the age or gender of a patient
is not in the press release, it is because we do not have these
details or it is not appropriate for that information to be
released e.g. we will not give the age of a fatality. If a press
release states “No further information is available”, it means “No
further information is available”.
· Do not call the
Trust’s Emergency Operations Centre or ambulance stations.
Your call could delay a crew from getting to a patient.
Editors are asked to ensure that these
guidelines are issued to all staff, including new starters to
ensure that everyone is clear about our procedures.
If you have any further questions about the
above guidelines please contact the Trusts Communications Director,
Murray MacGregor, on 01384 246 496.