HEALTH chiefs have defended a £54k public relations campaign for the North West Ambulance Service – despite the organisation already being one of the largest spenders on press and communications officers in the NHS.

The #Team999 campaign, launched last year, has been driven at educating the public that not all emergency calls are dealt with in the traditional way, as paramedics now have a variety of options for dealing with patients without serious problems, such as referring them to a GP, or even discharging them with telephone advice.

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It has been paid for by NHS commissioners following a proposal from NWAS, with about £17,000 spent on consultancy fees with Manchester-based Tangerine PR.

A further £13,800 was given to ICE Creates, for a ‘humorous’ online computer game which demonstrates the different ways in which ambulance staff can respond to calls.

Other substantial fees were spent on media adverts, promotional films, car stickers and Facebook ads, according to documents obtained by the Lancashire Telegraph through Freedom of Information laws.

NWAS bosses said the campaign has been ‘extremely positively’ received, and was supported by MPs, patient groups and councils.

However, prominent East Lancashire health campaigner Russ McLean said: “What a waste of public funds. The very fact I haven’t heard about this campaign says it all. If there’s anyone that will have heard about it then it’s me.

“The trust already spends a lot of money on PR staff, so I don’t think spending this extra NHS cash is justified at all.”

According to figures published by the Taxpayers Alliance, NWAS spent £244,000 on press and communications staff last year, one of the highest by the NHS.

But NWAS said in a statement: “One of the regular themes which arose when speaking with our staff was the need to educate the public in how the service operates and show what the different responses are to various 999 calls and to improve patient experience by managing expectations.

“The trust responded to this by drawing up a proposal for a patient experience programme, which included a public campaign. The proposal was approved and the trust received the funding for the campaign.

“Part of the agreement with commissioners is that the funding can only be used to achieve the proposal objectives and no NWAS monies were used.

“Launched in September 2013, the #team999 campaign focused on key frontline individuals from the trust, explaining their roles and how they might respond to a 999 call, the objective being to show, for example, that a 999 call might result in an ambulance being sent, a telephone triage or a home visit with a referral to a GP.

“The campaign has created a brand which staff can really get behind and it has been extremely positively received.”

It claimed the media coverage received and the high profile of the campaign on social media equated to a return of £12 per £1 spent.

Blackpool Clinical Commissioning Group, the lead commissioner for NWAS, said: “This particular scheme was put forward by NWAS and supported by commissioners.”