CIPR hits back at calls by Labour to cut NHS Communications team
Public relations organisation, The Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) has hit back at calls to cut the multi-million pound budget NHS communications team in favour of employing more nurses.
The Scottish Labour Party has said that the £4 million communications budget spent by the NHS should be used to employ 150 more nurses, rather than the 120 press and media staff currently on working for the NHS.
Jackie Baillie, Scottish Labour’s spokesperson for Health, said; "I want to see the NHS employing real doctors, not spin doctors, and employing nurses, not press officers."
The CIPR had defended the communications budget, calling it ‘a vital service’ which ensures that patients, staff, local communities and the media receive appropriate and timely information on healthcare and board issues.
A spokesperson for the CIPR told The Drum; “Ensuring patients and other stakeholders have the right information can help to prevent ill health by ensuring risks - both long term and short term - are effectively communicated. This can reduce the burden on the health service over the long term. Without a communications team, the job of dealing with enquiries about community health issues or the health provider's work - including FOI requests - would fall to other operational or clinical staff, potentially diverting them from vital patient care.”
They continued to say; “NHS communications teams will of course need to consider efficiencies, just as other teams within the public sector must do. To make comparisons on the relative merits of cuts to certain professional groups above others is too simplistic and does not reflect the very real information needs of those who use NHS services. What is needed is a balanced and informed debate."
The NHS is set to implement cost cutting measures as part of public spending cuts being made across the UK to offset to economic deficit.