Heartbeat: Trust to plan path to new online presence
September 17, 2020
When it comes to building the future of our healthcare services we are tackling multiple challenges head-on. There is the matter of recruitment, which you can read about elsewhere in this month’s edition of Heartbeat. Infrastructure and team changes continue as we continually re-evaluate our services based on not just the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic, but also from feedback received from both patients and clinicians.
The Midland Metropolitan University Hospital is, of course, the symbol by which we will define the future of our services, and this will have a knock-on effect in several other areas regarding how we present ourselves as a healthcare Trust and how we communicate with patients. This includes our online presence, such as social media.
One element of the Trust’s branding that has for some time been requiring an overhaul is our main website, the current version of which has been in operation for some considerable time. While it is still operational and kept up to date by the Communications team, it is beginning to show the strain, both in look and functionality.
“Our current site has been in operation for approximately eight years, and in that time a lot of the technology behind it has changed,” explains External Communications Manager, Anuji Evans.
“However, a lot of the structure of both the SWB site and the Birmingham Midland Eye Centre’s subsite – which is a clone, albeit a loose one of SWB – has not changed. It is very rigid in design and difficult for us to change in terms of the overall look. There are also a lot of specialised working parts behind the scenes that are pretty dated. Problems that just refreshing the look won’t solve.”
“With Midland Met moving closer, the Trust has come to an agreement that it is not the only ‘new build’ that needs focusing on. We’re now looking into what needs to be done to get a whole new website developed from the ground up that will better suit the needs of staff, patients and visitors and also reflect where we are going as an organisation. We, like you, want it to not just look better and work better but provide a suitable platform for all of our departments to showcase what they can do, how they can help and be proper knowledge bases for your specialities.”
Plans are currently in very early stages, and we will have more information about the developments in future Heartbeats. In the meantime regular updates of the current website will continue to take place; the External Communications team invites department leaders to take quarterly evaluations of the publicly displayed information in their sections and contact the communications team with any needed text updates.