What we do
Our Press Office handles all media enquiries relating to Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, its staff, patients and their families.
All media must request permission to film/photograph on our hospital sites and will be accompanied by a member of the Communications Team while on the hospital premises.
We have a wide range of leading clinicians at the Trust who can provide expert comment on a variety of health matters. If you would like to arrange an interview with any of our clinicians this must be arranged through the Communications Team. We provide a responsive service and will endeavour to support your requirements and deadlines as best we can.
The Communications Team is available between 9am and 5pm, Monday to Friday. If you are a member of the media and have an enquiry please phone us on 01253 956941 or email the communications team here.
Out of hours media enquiries:
If you are a member of the media and have a request out of office hours, please call our switchboard on 01253 300000 and ask for the Duty Manager, who will then liaise with the Communications Team to provide you with a response.
Condition checks
If you are a member of the media and wish to request an update on a patient’s condition, then you will need to phone the team and have the patient’s full name and date of birth and/or first line of their address.
We will be unable to locate patients without this information. We will not give any information to the media without the consent of the patient or the patient’s next of kin.
Social media
We monitor social media activity between 8.30am and 8pm Monday to Friday and at weekends and bank holidays between 9am and 5pm. We will always do our best to get back to anyone who contacts us as quickly as possible – our aim is within 24 hours. There may be times when we tweet and respond outside of the hours above – usually during events.
We won’t be able to answer clinical or medical questions via our social media sites but we will signpost people to where to get information, advice or support. If you have feedback for us, then we will respond to your comments. If you have a complaint, we will direct message you for details and ask our Patient Relations Team to respond to you.
Our social media content is managed by the Communications Team.
Twitter guidelines
We follow users who are relevant to our organisation, for example health and social care agencies and voluntary sector organisations. We do not automatically follow people or organisations that follow us.
Following other people or organisations does not imply endorsement of any kind on the part of our Trust. We are only responsible for tweets uploaded by our Communications Team.
Facebook guidelines
We would like to encourage people who ‘like’ or ‘follow’ our Facebook page to get involved in discussion on the page. We will add updates and photos on our pages regularly.
We will always remove any unsuitable content as soon as we become aware of it. We are only responsible for content uploaded by our Communications Team.
YouTube
YouTube will host all the videos produced by our hospitals. These sites are linked in directly to our Facebook and Twitter to help provide a more interactive online presence.
Content is managed by the Trust’s Communications Team and we will remove any unsuitable or offensive comments about our content as soon as we become aware of it.
Filming requests
We have supported many high profile TV documentary series and have also accommodated filming for TV drama series on our sites. If you have a filming request please email the Communications Team here with the details.
Advertising
We do not take sales calls and will contact advertisers as and when we require.
