Current awareness: harnessing the power of social media
Tom Roper, Clinical Librarian, Brighton and Sussex NHS Library and
Knowledge Service@tomroper
West Sussex (as it used to be)
• Primary Care Librarian, serving primary care and community– 56 GP practices grouped in six localities – Adur,
Arun, Chanctonbury, Chichester, Regis and Worthing
– Sussex Community NHS Trust: 4,300 staff serving 1 million people in West Sussex and Brighton and Hove (biggest in NHS South of England)
• Two-thirds of West Sussex, 482,000 people
West Sussex
• 56 GP Practices• 1 acute NHS hospital trust• 6 NHS community hospitals• Over 200 Community Nurses and a wide
range of community teams• Over 50 NHS Dental Surgeries• Around 95 Community Pharmacies
West Sussex health needs
• One of the oldest populations in England– Over 23% of population aged over 65 (compared to
average for England c.16%).• Our population is ageing
– By 2016 there will be 11% more people aged over 85 living in Coastal West Sussex.
• We have areas of high deprivation– Some areas on the coastal strip are among the 10% most
deprived in the country.• With age comes disease
– Number of people with long-term conditions such as COPD, diabetes and dementia increasing
– By 2026 there will be around 3,200 more people living with dementia
Why did we want to use social media? • Part of our online brand• Engage and converse with users and non-
users• Visibility to the great and good:
– https://twitter.com/LisaSaysThis• Some urgent messages to convey
• http://www.ksslibraries.nhs.uk/.../tom_roper_social_media_business_case.doc
Changing attitudes
• NHS Employers: HR and social media in the NHS– http://www.nhsemployers.org/Aboutus/Publicatio
ns/Documents/HR-social-media-NHS.pdf• GMC: Doctors’ use of social media
– http://www.gmc-uk.org/guidance/ethical_guidance/21186.asp
• And now– http://www.nhsemployers.org/Aboutus/Publicatio
ns/Documents/Social_media_for_chief_executives_Guide.pdf
Business case
• Communications objectives• Risk analysis and mitigation• Managing• Promoting• Monitoring/evaluation• Follow-back policy • Building skills
• https://twitter.com/WSussexLKS• The hashtag: #shallchi• Lists
Tweeting by stealth
• Connect your blog to twitter (works for Facebook too)– http://primarycareknowledge.wordpress.com
• Schedule tweets (needs a client, eg Hootsuite, Tweetdeck)
News curation: paper.li
• http://paper.li/WSKPrimaryCare/• Delivery by e-mail/web/twitter
News curation: Scoop.it
• http://www.scoop.it/t/gp-commissioning/curate
Other stealthy things to do
• Hootsuite: http://www.hootsuite.com• Can be set up as clients for social media
accounts and web versions are not always blocked
• Seesmic R.I.P.
Current awareness
• Less KnowledgeShare ™, more an immersive learning experience
• Especially useful for primary care: @clarercgp
• Debate about NHS post Francis and post Health and Social Care Act is being conducted on Twitter
Top Related