The word on the tweet

NHS hospital trusts are starting to use the micro-blogging tool Twitter to update their staff and local communities.

Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust appears to have been the first in the country to adopt Twitter, setting up a homepage on the site at the end of December. However, Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust seems to have the most Twitter “followers.”

Seventy seven people have signed up to receive press releases, awareness messages and updates such as ‘cancellations to services due to bad weather’ and ‘health minister to visit on Monday.’

Liz McWilliams, Southampton’s web editor, told E-Health Insider: “The idea came up in January when we were discussing how to engage some of the harder to reach groups in our area.

“We thought that social networking sites might help us converse with a different demographic. Twitter was an obvious next step, because it's quick and free to set up and takes only a few seconds to keep up-to-date.”

She added: “We currently see it very much as an auxiliary communications tool and wouldn’t rely on it as the sole method to get an important message out - but we’ll be increasingly using it for feedback.”

Earlier this year Paul Jones, NHS Connecting for Health’s chief technology officer told EHI he was thinking about how new technologies, including Twitter, can help people that are constantly on the move within the NHS.

Oliver Francis from the Oxford Radcliffe’s media and communications unit, said: “It’s hard to tell how successful it’s going to be, but we were one of the first trusts to Twitter and have 57 followers, with more people are joining every day.

“We have patients, relatives, stakeholders and anyone with an interest in the trust following. Some staff are signed up, but most are too busy to use it on the ward.”

Other NHS organisations using Twitter include Buckinghamshire Hospitals NHS Trust, NHS Manchester and NHS Choices.

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