Professional communicators have become more influential

New NHS research has revealed that professional NHS communicators have become more influential and have developed an enhanced strategic role during the coronavirus pandemic.

The study of over 150 NHS professional communicators found that 84 per cent of respondents said professional communicators had become more influential during the early stages of the pandemic with communication increasingly being recognised as a vital strategic function. They reported being ‘more involved in helping to inform and shape organisational decision making’ and of getting ‘a seat at the top table and a more strategic role’.

Conducted by the Centre for Health Communication Research, the analysis also explored the question of the centralised ‘command and control’ of local NHS communication. A number of respondents criticised the way in which ‘command and control’ had been applied and complained that it took too long to sign off proposed communication initiatives.

John Underwood, director of the Centre for Health Communication Research, said: “If there needs to be a centralised command and control approach to communication – and, in a national emergency, there does need to be such an approach – its recent application should be reviewed to determine how in future it might be applied with the wider support of senior NHS communicators in frontline NHS organisations. This is particularly important given the possibility of further waves of coronavirus infection. And the NHS should explore what more could be done to ensure that frontline NHS communicators are alerted to changes in national messaging as quickly as possible and that requests to proceed with local communication initiatives are processed more rapidly.”

The same researchers also found that NHS communication managers are concerned that public support for the NHS may soon start to erode as the health service begins restoring pre-coronavirus levels of service.