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14. Communication
Effective internal and external communications will be vital before, during and after an influenza pandemic. They will provide the backbone for a reliable and coordinated response.
While the Government will be responsible for providing national messages regarding pandemic flu, strategic health authorities/health boards and primary care organisations have a responsibility for cascading and supporting national messages and for adding local advice and information on service provision and treatment. Given that these organisations have a key communication role, there will need to be a clear understanding of the process for communicating with the public and a mechanism for ensuring that there is consistency and rigour to any information that is issued.
During a pandemic, clear and simple information for patients and the public on any changes to access in primary and secondary care, disruption to services and what local provision is being made for delivery of medicines (e.g. antivirals and vaccination) will also be required.
Successful management of the expectations and fears of the public (including healthcare staff) is crucial if the response to an influenza pandemic threat is to be effective.
14.1 Aims and objectives
The main aims of communications planning should be to:
- engage staff in planning and preparation from an early stage so that they understand and have confidence in the plans and are willing to implement them
- build trust among the local population and achieve their support for the local response and contingency measures around the surge that will be operating locally at the peak of a pandemic
- encourage discussion of pandemic response options, limitations and constraints in an inclusive and transparent way
- convey accurate, timely, consistent and credible advice and information to the public (including hard-to-reach groups), businesses and health professionals at the pre-surge, surge and recovery stages
- ensure that all staff in primary and secondary care settings are aware of the stage the pandemic is at in a locality, of the plans for dealing with the surge, of any restrictions on treatments, of when triage is being instituted and of the nature of the triage
- ensure that staff understand the nature of the disease, and the national and local response, so they have enough information to explain to patients what they can do to help themselves if they develop symptoms and how best to minimise the risk of spread
- provide multilingual information on local issues regarding assessment, healthcare and other support services and how they should be accessed by symptomatic patients.
14.2 Key elements
Key elements of the communications plan should include:
- planned media engagement to ensure that timely and accurate information and explanations are available to support informed reporting
- identified spokespeople who will be capable of communicating complex messages to the media, the public and staff
- provision to various sources of accurate and up-to-date local information, e.g. local websites
- planned, and tested, multi-channel and multilingual materials to provide local information.
14.3 Further information
Further information on national health communications and public engagement preparations for a pandemic is available at www.dh.gov.uk/pandemicflu and in the National framework.
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