A PROACTIVE campaign is being mounted by NHS Dumfries and Galloway Health Board to increase audience figures on social media as part of their attraction strategy for healthcare professionals into hard to fill posts.
The NHS has called out to local hoteliers across the region to support them in a targeted campaign to increase audience figures on their NHS Dumfries and Galloway Facebook page by 100% in the next year.
The NHS is looking at innovative ways to reach healthcare professionals from outside of the region and recognise that social media platforms are proving to be great success in other areas of the UK.
This campaign is one part of an attraction and recruitment strategy led by NHS Dumfries and Galloway’s new Workforce and Sustainability Manager Victoria McDade, who has over 20 years experience in public and private sector recruitment.
Victoria said: “I am delighted to be working with the NHS and Social Care organisations in Dumfries and Galloway and have been overwhelmed by the positive response we have had from our community in the first part of the campaign which involved a call out for photos of the area.
“We asked both our staff and community to send in their photos of where they Live, Work and Play – as many of the photos we had to promote living and working in the area did not do it full justice.
“It is a highly competitive market, and national shortages of skilled staff such as Doctors, Consultants, Nurses, Midwives, Physiotherapists and other Allied Health Professionals are at an all time high.
“NHS Dumfries and Galloway have been involved in many national campaigns such as the International recruitment Campaign led centrally by Glasgow and Clydesdale NHS that has seen an increase in numbers in our radiology staffing.
“We have, through the tenacity of the clinical leads, seen some excellent local recruitment events. However, we feel there is more we can do to compete – and one of these strategies is getting to grips with the unique selling points of living and working here and to better market ourselves.”
The first hotelier to sign up to the campaign in supporting the NHS to widen its social media audience is Thornbank House Guesthouse in Stranraer.
Fiona Wood is proprietor, and said: “We are thrilled to be able to do something proactive to support our NHS locally.
“Wigtownshire has always been a popular tourist destination. However, our community has a great track record of welcoming families and individuals relocating to the area to live and work.
“Despite being effected by challenges around recruitment, our NHS teams in Wigtownshire have always remained an excellent and friendly service that has the backing of the community.
“We hope this campaign is one of many that we as a community can support and hopefully welcome healthcare professionals to our region.”
Victoria McDade said: “We are hopeful that this campaign will continue to gain the support of our local enterprises from hotels to attractions who are willing to offer incentives to help us grow our audience figures so that when we publish our posts we have a better applicant rate.
“Currently posts are advertised on the Scottish NHS National jobs board www.jobs.scot.nhs.uk “
If local enterprises are interested in getting in touch to support this campaign they can direct enquires to [email protected]
Addressing next steps in the strategy, Victoria says work is underway to explore more robust processes to attract and retain the yearly cohorts of newly qualified registered staff that come to train in Dumfries and Galloway, as well as work looking at local and domestic job fairs and other routes into international recruitment.
Victoria said: “We know we have a strong and welcoming community and we want to work with that community, religious leaders, businesses, housing associations and other settled workers to look at support programmes to ensure we not just attract but we create a sustainable workforce for the future.”
Victoria will be looking to set up a community focus group in the near future and is happy to take expressions of interest from our community leaders and members of the public to help create a strategy of support. She can be contacted at [email protected]
