We are delighted to host a guest post from Carl Plant, Stoke-on-Trent social media and community hero now working with NHS Local:
Hello my name is Carl Plant and I’m the online Community manager for NHS local, which is a new digital health service for the West Midlands.
NHS local aims to engage with the public and NHS staff by producing news and information at a hyperlocal level. You can read more here on our about page.
Our challenge is to engage with the public and provide a conversational conduit between NHS staff and the public using on and offline methods and tools.
As well as developing innovative ways to engage with the public, we hope to help people manage their health based on more locally based information.
Our feeling here at NHS local, is that the news and information services can only be shaped by engaging honestly with the public and NHS staff in the West Midlands region as well as developing relationships that allow the flow of hyperlocal news.
We will be using various tools to create news and information services that focus right down to postcode level, such as GP related and community services, pharmacy opening times etc. We hope to create a two way flow of information between ourselves and various online communities.
I hope to get around to speaking to many hyperlocal bloggers to learn how to improve NHS related information sharing in the West Midlands and I’m very keen to move away from the traditional broadcast experience people have spoken to me about.
Over the next few months we will be developing the NHS local site based on user experience and growing the community feel to it. I would love to hear from new and experienced bloggers, web enthusiasts, designers, developers, newbies, friendly geeks, anybody who would like to chat about NHS (hyper) local.
You can contact me via:
www.twitter.com/carlplant www.twitter.com/nhslocal
c.plant@mavericktv.co.uk
www.facebook.com/nhslocal
