52. Image & Joyce Green Hospital

Key words/phrases: The Royal Ballet Company of London, Edward Watson -Principal Male Dancer, Mary Clarke -Editor of The Dancing Times, The Royal Opera House, Great Ormond St Children's Hospital, Peter Pan, George Bush Jnr., Tony Blair,

No. 52

The Royal Ballet Company in London has been accused this week of “sexing up” its advertising material and as a consequence of this Dartford’s name has been thrust into the limelight once again.

How ? Well rather than using a traditional image of a female ballet dancer in a tutu, underscored by a plain slogan of the: “Why not come to the ballet”, the Royal Opera House has launched a new poster depicting it’s principal male dancer gazing into the camera’s lens with his lips forming a gentle pout. Then underneath the image there is a caption that reads : "Meet Ed. Fact: When he's dancing, pound for pound, he's stronger than a rhino. Superheroes really do wear tights".

So how and why is Dartford associated with this controversial advertising campaign ? Well because Edward Watson, the 31yr old red-headed male principal dancer is a Dartford lad who was born and bred in Longfield and is someone who still counts Dartford as his home town.

Mary Clarke, the editor of the Dancing Times, has deemed such treatment of a serious artist as “appalling” and as “a tacky advertising ploy that will cheapen the image of the company”. The Royal Opera House however has described its advertising campaign as “up close and personal” and “something that seeks to celebrate the physicality of its performers as well as challenging people's perceptions of ballet dancers as distant figures in tutus”.

Their director of marketing is quoted in a number of English newspapers as saying: “Whilst I have an imperative to sell seats, an even bigger imperative is to have the right image for the organisation and to change people's perceptions of it so that they realise that we are not intimidating but engaging and welcoming”.

It was this disagreement involving such a well-known company that made me begin to think about the images which hospitals have and sometimes seek to project.

If I were to ask you to name a well-known London children’s hospital you are more than likely to reply: “Great Ormond Street”. Equally, if YOU were to ask a member of the British public to name a “heart hospital”, you wouldn’t be at all surprised would you if they answered: “Harefield”.

What actually happens - clinically - in any hospital does seem to be one of the keys to shaping the image that it has in the public’s eye. In turn this led me on to thinking about the image that Joyce Green used to have and how that image was nurtured and maintained.

The name of a hospital, its historical background, its crest and its motto may all be important. (“The child first and always", being Gt. Ormond Street’s motto and the facts relating to it’s possession of the “Peter Pan” royalty-rights legacy being known to most people) but in fact it’s usually the good work that has gone on in any hospital over the years that is most effective in building up the reputation of the hospital.

So here’s a question that is perhaps worth re-asking :Did Joyce Green Hospital have a good reputation for the treatment, the care and the services that it provided and if so, on what was that reputation based ?

Do you remember particular wards or departments and their associated teams of staff who won reputations as providers of excellent treatment ? Or at a simpler level can you remember teams of people within the hospital who came to be known for the quality of the patient care that they provided ?

When “The Great Book of World Politics” comes to be written although George Bush Jnr and Tony Blair are most likely to remembered as key figures in “sexing up” the case for war against Iraq at least the consequences of their manipulations have now caused many top class leaders to re-think just how wise it is to “sex up” political, business and management evidence as a means of achieving their objectives.

Perhaps at the end of the day what really matters when it comes to providing what the public wants are … skills before sound-bites, integrity before artificially inflamed descriptions and results, reliability before razzmatazz and hope before hype ?

So even though Joyce Green Hospital never achieved 1st Division status in the world of well-known hospitals, I remain convinced that - in the main - it provided a standard of care that many patients and their families truly appreciated.