Media coverage - March 2011
Sunday Times – circulation 1m – 6 March ‘11 - Hospitals shamed by cockroach kitchens
Three out of four hospital kitchens in Britain have breached basic food hygiene standards, according to The Sunday Times.
The paper revealed that cockroaches had been found near the coffee-shop at Barts and in a basement corridor. The paper carried part of our statement explaining that “a small number of housekeeping issues were identified and immediately addressed”. It included the fact that we were awarded a four-star rating by inspectors in the national food hygiene rating scheme.
Daily Telegraph - circulation 630,000 – 3 March ‘11
BLT Cardiac surgery Dr Duncan Dymond wrote an explainer piece after the tennis player Serena Williams was taken to hospital with a blood clot . He explained that such clots were normally associated with being immobile in a confined space, but that in Williams’ case, it could have been linked to recent foot surgery.
East London Advertiser - circulation 25,000 - 3 March '11
The paper reported that the air ambulance received a "major boost" after the Coroner in the 7/7 inquest said it "deserved proper funding". The ELA said her comments came after Dr Gareth Davies told how 27 doctors and paramedics were deployed to Aldgate and other bomb sites to help victims.
Coverage of Barts job losses
An editorial on 4 March in the Daily Telegraph – circulation 631,000 - mentioned the job cuts at Barts in the context of the last government “signing up to lots of dodgy contracts (PFI or otherwise), starting lots of pointless projects and hiring people who are proving very expensive to fire. “
It continued: “Just take one example, from this week’s Private Eye: Barts and Royal London NHS trust is to save £50 million by cutting 635 jobs. And yet from 2013, it will be spending £100m a year on a new PFI contract. The cost of these things is immeasurably huge and not included in the ordinary accounts. Paying means more cuts to other services.”
The pressure group, Right To Work, ran a piece about tomorrow’s march from RLH to Barts on its website: saying “fear and frustration is quickly turning to anger” over public sector cuts and “across London, workers and students have been busy building for the demonstration”.
Right To Work also held a press conference outside Outpatients at Barts on Monday about tomorrow’s march. It was attended by eight demonstrators and the Daily Mirror although nothing ran in today’s edition of the paper.
The Guardian – circulation 265,000 – Tuesday, 15 March Are Hospital Cuts a False Economy? The newspaper said many questioned the wisdom of Andrew Lansley’s reorganization of the NHS, saying “More than 50,000 NHS staff posts face the axe, according to freedom of information replies to Unison’s False Economy campaign. Barts and the London NHS Foundation Trust, for example, is consulting about losing 635 posts, including 258 nurses.”
The demonstration at RLH and Barts against job cuts the previous week continued to attract headlines:
Socialist Worker
Social Equality
East London Advertister – circulation 24,000 – Wednesday 16 March
Child poverty in East End worst in country
The paper reported on the fact that Tower Hamlets has the highest level of child poverty in the UK and that the situation is getting worse. They said the borough had been harder hit than other areas by the recent public sector cuts, adding that BLT “announced earlier this year it is cutting more than 600 jobs and NHS Tower Hamlets is downsizing too”.
Bryan Robson treated for throat cancer – 16 March ‘11
We set up an interview for the Press Association with Consultant ENT Surgeon, Mike Dilkes, about former England player Bryan Robson’s treatment for throat cancer. The interview, in which Mr Dilkes was optimistic about Robson’s recovery, was carried on PA’s website and subsequently picked up by several big news websites, as well as The Independent.
Press Association – subscribed to by all mainstream UK media
The Independent – circulation 175,000
Sporting Life
Waltham Forest Guardian – 16 March - Whipps chief exec steps down
The paper reported that “the chief executive of Whipps Cross Hospital is to step down from her job in order to take up a new role overseeing the merger of three NHS trusts.
“Dr Lucy Moore is to become integration director for the project, which aims to achieve Foundation status for Newham, Barts and Whipps Cross NHS trusts by uniting them.”
News of the World – circulation 2.6m - 20 March - 4,600 frontline doctors, nurses and medics to be axed by 2015
Thousands of doctors, nurses and other frontline NHS jobs will be axed under the Coalition’s cuts, the newspaper reported. As part of a round-up of job cuts at hospitals across England, the paper referred to BLT, saying we would “shed 341 clinical roles, including 258 nurses and 18 pharmacy posts – 4.6% of total staff”. The statement we we provided, explaining how planned cost efficiencies would not affect patient care, was not included in the piece.
The 25,000th mission by the air ambulance attracted a lot of media coverage, set up and overseen by the charity.
BBC London – 400,000 viewers - 21 March '11, ran a three minute piece on their lunchtime and evening programme, focusing in detail on the history and work of the air ambulance. The BBC shadowed the team for the day, going up in the helicopter and interviewing A&E Consultant and Air Ambulance Medical Director, Dr Gareth Davies. The piece also included an interview with grateful former patient, John Knowles, who was treated by Dr Davies and team after a motorbike accident.
Items also ran throughout the day on Heart Radio – weekly reach 1.8m listeners - and LBC – weekly reach 1m - after reporter Michael Traboulsi from Global Radio (news providers for Heart and LBC) followed our team for the day.
Click on the following link for LBC 's photo-gallery. The station also ran Michael Traboulsi’s account of his day with us.
BBC Lifeline appeal
We set up filming at RLH for the BBC’s current Lifeline Appeal which is raising money for The Childhood Eye Cancer Trust. They fundraise for the treatment of retinoblastoma - eye cancer - in children. The Royal London is one of only two centres in the UK specialising in this kind of cancer. The short film which was broadcast twice at peak times on BBC One and Two over the last two weekends, featured Consultant Retinoblastoma Surgeon, Mr Ashwin Reddy with 2 year old patient, Joe Holman, who is recovering well, following treatment. Click on the following link to watch the film:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00zv3m1/Lifeline_Childhood_Eye_Cancer/
Meet The Elephant Man – 23 March Discovery Channel – global reach of 431m viewers
We set up extensive access over several months for the documentary-makers who focused on the condition affecting Joseph Merrick – Proteus Syndrome – which is extremely rare and causes skin, bone and muscles to grow too much. The programme included an in-depth interview with Trust Archivist, Jonathan Evans, an expert on the life of Joseph Merrick. Merrick resided over a long period of time at The Royal London Hospital before his death aged 27. We organised rare permission for the crew to film Joseph Merrick’s remains and carry out medical scans on them.
Guardian – circulation 265,000 - 23 March ’11 - NHS reforms “could lead to US-style system”
The paper said that two separate reports in the BMJ – one by Professor Allyson Pollock from Barts – had concluded that the government’s NHS reforms “would create a system where the government finances, but does not provide, healthcare”. The newspaper said the reports warned that 'referral management centres' could block GPs' referrals and thereby reject patients.
Sunday Telegraph – circulation 630,000 – 27 March ‘11 - Labour left taxpayer £60 billion bill for new hospitals
The newspaper reported on the number of PFI hospital schemes approved by the last government. It said that “£60 billion must be repaid by the taxpayer – with some of the gigantic debt lasting more than 30 years.”
It added: “The highest profile case concerns Barts and The London NHS Trust project, signed by ministers in 2006, which provided two new hospitals in the capital. By the time the coalition took office four years later nothing at all had been repaid, leaving an outstanding bill of £5.3 billion.”
The newspaper did not approach us for any comment or statement before publication.
The story, based on statistics released on Friday on the Treasury website , was also covered in The News Of The World – circulation 2.6m. Again, no approach was made to us beforehand for a comment or response.
The Daily Express – circulation 623,689 – Tuesday 29 March
NHS saved me from Cairo bullet nightmare
This was a full page colour photo feature about Gavin Ascott, a British teacher, who was shot in the eye during the recent protests in Cairo. With the bullet still lodged behind his eye and unable to get medical treatment in Egypt, he returned to the UK where he was successfully operated on by BLT surgeons, Simon Holmes and Chris Bridle.