Case Studies

The following case studies are taken from the work carried out under the direction of GB Communication's MD Geoffrey Bowden' when he was managing director of Nexus Structured Communications. He led a management buy-out of NSC in March 2008.

Marketing of the first NHS Walk-in Centre for General Medical Clinics PLC

Client: General Medical Clinics PLC Project: Liverpool Street NHS Walk-in Centre launch marketing General Medical Clinics PLC is an independent sector healthcare provider that owns and runs private GP surgeries in the City of London. In 2005 it was awarded a five- year contract to manage an NHS Walk-in Centre near London's Liverpool Street station and Nexus Structured Communications (NSC) was appointed to devise and run a public awareness campaign to promote this new service. The campaign' based on a modest budget' covered a three month period and led to the high profile official opening of the Centre on 24 January 2006 by the former Health Secretary' Patricia Hewitt. This resulted in widespread positive media coverage in newspapers' on radio and television' in specialist titles and on web-based news outlets. Within hours of the coverage patients were arriving at the Centre having watched or heard the breakfast or lunchtime news broadcasts. Around 100 patients a day are being seen by the Centre' whose contract has an upper daily limit of 180. In addition to arranging for the national media to attend the launch' NSC supplied regional newspapers along the commuter lines into Liverpool Street station with a tailored story aimed at readers from those towns and cities. NSC developed a Question and Answer prompt sheet and provided some basic media training for identified spokespeople. NSC's approach also focused on identifying the key people that needed to know about the Walk-in Centre service. This included local GPs' dentists' pharmacists' train station staff' police' station concourse shop employees and City businesses working around the Liverpool Street area. These individuals were sent a range of communications (including location maps) to ensure they were as well informed of developments as possible. While the Walk-in Centre has a commuter focus' it is also a facility for local residents. The consultancy arranged for a centre spread describing the available services in the local edition of Your Health! magazine' which was delivered to 10'000 households. The Walk-in Centre campaign also highlighted the importance of signage and posters in Liverpool Street station. NSC obtained several key sites in the station after negotiating with Network Rail. Jerry Appleyard' Managing Director of General Medical Clinics PLC' said: "In the months leading up to the opening of this Centre we wanted to raise awareness of the service as part of the overall marketing plan. Nexus Structured Communications were supportive throughout the project. Their professional approach' insight and knowledge of the media and healthcare market led to us gaining valuable coverage. There is no doubt that they secured a higher public profile for us and this is evidenced by the numbers of patients that have visited the Walk-in Centre since it opened' which is encouraging us to seek further NHS contracts in the future." Part of Nexus' brief focused on maintaining the good will of private clients who had previously accessed General Medical Clinics' GP services from its premises close to Liverpool Street Station. As this premises was to be used for the Walk-in Centre it was important to manage the transfer of those private patients to another GenMed facility nearby with minimal or no loss of patient numbers. Targeted mailings to individual and corporate clients were sent well in advance of the transfer and this was then followed by a series of open house evenings at the new premises. No private sector clients were lost.

SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCES

- delivering a successful event for the British Association for the Study of the Liver Client: British Association for the Study of the Liver Project: BASL Masterclass - Management of Chronic Hepatitis B The British Association for the Study of the Liver (BASL) is a multi-disciplinary society of over 400 scientists and clinicians who are dedicated to expanding knowledge and understanding of the biology and pathology of the liver. Every year BASL holds an annual scientific event for its members. In November 2005 Nexus Structured Communications (NSC) was asked to organise a national meeting for BASL entitled "Masterclass in the Management of Chronic Hepatitis B". Over a three month period NSC focused on helping to shape the event working closely with the event's organiser' Dr Nikolai Naoumov' Reader in Hepatology & Consultant Physician at University College London (UCL). The programme included the natural history of hepatitis B' optimal diagnosis and goals of treatment' a review of information on antiviral therapy in different patients and finally highlights of future developments and approaches to improve treatment outcomes for this devastating disease that is a global health problem. One of consultancy's responsibilities was to actively promote the meeting and to secure a minimum attendance of 200 delegates.

Strategic marketing

We focused on strategic marketing involving e-marketing to target groups of clinicians. The short campaign was very successful and attracted over 220 delegates to the Royal College of Physicians on the day' including consultants in Gastroenterology' Infectious Disease and Virology' specialist registrars and clinical nurse specialists from all over the UK. In close collaboration with the organiser' sponsorship from three pharmaceutical companies was successfully secured to help fund the marketing activity' as well as other expenses related to speakers and running the event in general. The faculty of the conference included sixteen eminent speakers' from the UK' Europe and Canada and Nexus handled all liaison with them' including making arrangements for their travel and accommodation' as well as coordinating the gathering of their presentations and a short synopsis of their papers.

Positive feedback

Pre-conference arrangements with sponsors and the venue were all handled by the consultancy' who also staffed the registration of delegates and distributed CPD certificates. At the end of the event the consultancy also produced the analysis of the delegate feedback - all of which was positive - and ensured that all travel disbursements for the speakers were paid in a timely fashion. Masterclass organiser Dr Nikolai Naoumov' said: "I was delighted with the way the event was planned and managed. Geoffrey Bowden and his team handled everything very professionally' surpassing the agreed target delegate numbers and delivering the project on time and within budget. "The event ran very smoothly on the day and feedback from attendees has been extremely positive. Following this event I had no hesitation in recommending the consultancy to help organise another even bigger event for the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) - this time for 350 delegates and to be held at the University College of London."