Disaster planning: managing the media.

During several recent disasters hospital routines have been severely disrupted as a result of invasions by representatives of the media. Reporters, photographers, and crews from television and radio stations have all vied with each other to be the first with detailed reports, pictures, and exclusive interviews. The problems arising from the "clamour for information from relatives, press, television, and radio" were recognised in 1977 by the Department of Health and Social Security when it issued the most recent health circular dealing with major accidents,' and general requirements for dealing with representatives of the media have since been outlined.2 The role of the media is to obtain information of interest to its listeners, viewers, or readers and to produce this information as rapidly as possible. While this is an essential part of a free society, the sudden arrival of a large number of reporters can be an unwelcome burden for a hospital trying to cope with the victims of a disaster. The problem can, however, be reduced to manageable proportions if the requirements of the media are understood and effective measures taken to meet them. These objectives can be achieved by including in the disaster plan facilities for accommodating the press and by developing good liaison with the media through a press officer. This officer might be a designated senior member of staff at the hospital who assumes the role during a disaster. Professional help is available, however, from the press and public relations department of each regional health authority. The regional public relations officer and his staff will advise hospital managers and, if necessary, go to the hospital to take on the responsibility for the media, working with and for the hospital staff. We prepared the following guidelines after analysing the lessons learnt from a disaster exercise held at Queen Mary's Hospital, Sidcup, and from the bomb explosion at the Grand Hotel, Brighton. Theory and practice A disaster exercise held at Queen Mary's Hospital in March 1984 was designed to include harassment by the media in the form of enthusiastic participation by reporters from the Kentish Times and members of the South East Thames Regional Health Authority's public relations department, several of whom had been professional reporters. The exercise simulated a train crash at Sidcup station and resulted in 76 "casualties" being admitted to the hospital over one and a half hours. In addition, 150 people playing the parts ofrelatives …