Mr. Tran Tuan Linh – General Secretary of Health and Life Newspaper affirmed that the Newspaper is always ready and capable of solving communication problems, serving as an information bridge between units, localities, and establishments. medical with readers.
Media crises can happen to anyone and at any time
On June 16, 2023, in Ho Chi Minh City, the Ministry of Health organized a conference to guide communication work, provide medical information and implement the Ministry of Health’s Speech Regulations.
At the conference, journalist Tran Tuan Linh – Editor-in-Chief of Health and Life Newspaper shared his experiences in medical communication work; Experience in building coordination mechanisms between press agencies and units in the health sector.
According to Mr. Tran Tuan Linh, in the current context of social network development, the media crisis does not spare anyone. Any individual or group is facing the risk of a communication crisis. For example, someone gets drunk and goes out on the street, gets into a traffic accident and then has their photo taken by passersby and posted on groups, forums… Agencies and units of the health sector are no exception. These are agencies and units that are susceptible to crises and public pressure is even greater, for example in medical examination and treatment, issues of interaction with patients…
Crisis can occur even when the subject is doing more good things than not, even when most of them are good, even 100% good.
Editor-in-Chief Tran Tuan Linh said that the issue that needs attention in current medical communication work is to handle the media crisis well and manage the information sources provided to press agencies well. At the same time, build an effective coordination mechanism between press agencies and units in the health sector.
Reality shows that preventing risks of communication crises is an issue that health units, including the Ministry of Health as well as health units at lower levels, must pay close attention to. And if in the past, thinking about the media crisis was mainly only in the newspapers, now, the crisis in the newspapers is only the “top part”, processing information on social platforms is also very important. .
From experience in medical communication work, Mr. Tran Tuan Linh shares his experience in preventing and responding to communication crises. The first is to build a permanent human resources department for both communications and media crisis handling. Second is to build crisis response scenarios at each level. Third is preparing legal corridors to handle the crisis. Fourth is the media diluting the crisis. Fifth is strict, effective and transparent internal governance.
Build an effective coordination mechanism between press agencies and health sector units
Sharing at the conference, journalist Tran Tuan Linh stated that once the foundation for communication work has been built, units in the health sector need to pay special attention to the coordination mechanism with press agencies. . In which the proactive and preparedness factor is the top priority.
For units under the health sector, doing the same thing with routine medical information such as emergency cases, medical achievements, medical incidents, conflicts with people at medical examination and treatment places… is very important. should be proactively brought to the press by the units themselves. Units need to be given the right to speak within their fields.
Mr. Tran Tuan Linh said that Health and Life Newspaper, the mouthpiece of the Ministry of Health, has had great innovation and development in recent times, especially social platforms have developed strongly. Outstanding strength such as: Youtube channel reached 2.08 million subs after 1.5 years of construction (on average, producing 60 video clips per day, about 100 million views per month); Tiktok has 1.4 million followers; fanpage attracts more than 156,000 followers, along with print and electronic newspaper systems. Total reader reach is about 7 million/day.
However, according to Mr. Tran Tuan Linh, current reality shows that units under the health sector do not have much interactive relationship with the press agency of the Ministry of Health.
Mr. Tran Tuan Linh affirmed that Health and Life Newspaper is always ready and capable of solving communication problems, serving as a reputable information bridge to support units, localities, and medical facilities. to readers, is the press agency for localities and units to issue official, unique statements to minimize the risk of prolonged crisis; Operate a system to monitor negative information, retrieve all medical information on all press and social network platforms.
The conference guiding communication work, providing medical information and implementing the Ministry of Health’s Speech Regulations also received many comments discussing and sharing experiences on implementing and handling related information. to the medical field; Skills in synthesizing and building information for the unit to provide to press agencies.
Antone Stroman