Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital NHS Trust wins ‘Best Campaign’ award at annual AHC conference

Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital NHS Trust has been presented with the ’Best Campaign’ award at the annual Association of Healthcare Communicators Conference.

Awards were presented to organisations demonstrating the best in industry communications. The ’Best Campaign’ award, sponsored by Royal Mail, was won for the trust’s publicity around the hospital’s bowel cancer screening programme. The activity was described by the judges as ’a superbly devised and delivered campaign, as a pilot to a national programme that has already helped to save lives’.

The campaign, which is continuing, involves posting self-test kits to the homes of people in the target age range. Recipients are asked to take the test and send it back to the hospital for analysis, and people whose results showed an abnormality are contacted so that further tests can be carried out. The approach, which also included activity with local radio to raise awareness of bowel cancer, has proved hugely successful, with a 73 per cent response rate in its first year.

Other award winners included Knowsley Health and Social Care NHS Trust, which was presented with the ’Award of Excellence’, and University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust which won the ’Best Internal Communications’ award.

This year’s conference explored the theme of ’reputation or obliteration’ through presentations, discussions and seminars with industry leaders. Speakers included David Blunkett, MP, and representatives from The Department of Health and Unison.