Media enquiries
The Media team
The Media team at King’s provides a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week service to help journalists access information about King’s and answer questions about the Trust. We also work to proactively promote our services, and the work of our teams, via the media. All media enquiries should be directed to the media team.
We aim to respond positively and openly to all reasonable media requests. We are also keen to promote the work of King’s in the media, and actively promote exciting and ground-breaking developments at the Trust, including world and UK firsts.
We can help you with:
- press releases on the latest developments from King’s, including world and UK firsts
- inspirational and powerful stories about patients treated at King’s
- general enquiries about King’s and our services
- expert spokespeople to talk about specific health conditions stories in the media.
Contacting us
Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm:
- phone: 020 3299 3257
- email: [email protected]
Out-of-hours
If you have an urgent media enquiry out of hours, please call the hospital switchboard on 020 3299 9000. Your enquiry will be directed to the on-call communications officer if appropriate.
Condition checks
We can assist with requests about the condition of patients being treated here at King’s. These are known as condition checks. However, the following rules and guidelines apply:
- We place great emphasis on patient confidentiality. We will not give any information about a patient without permission from either the patient or their next of kin.
- If permission is granted, only a brief indication of the progress of the patient will typically be given. For example, if the patient is comfortable, stable, or critical.
- If the patient or their next of kin has specifically requested that no information is released to the media about their condition, their wishes will always be respected.
- To carry out a condition check, we need the patient’s first and last name and their date of birth.
Major incidents
Like all NHS Trusts, we have a plan to help us manage major incidents and large-scale emergencies that directly or indirectly involve the Trust. This plan includes arrangements for the media, who we want to work closely with to ensure a consistent flow of accurate, up-to-date information to patients, and members of the public.
During a major incident:
- the Media team will provide regular updates via the Trust’s social media accounts.
- we will make every effort to provide up-to-date and timely information to the media.
- depending on the nature of the incident, there may be an opportunity for interviews with hospital staff.
- we will update our website homepage regularly.