You may remember last months healthcare news included headlines such as “Minor Ailments Costing NHS £2bn A Year”. The articles which related to a letter to The Times detailed 51.4 million unnecessary consultations each year and common conditions accounting for one fifth of GP appointments. The conclusion: self-care and a shift in behaviour around treating minor ailments could save the NHS money without making cuts.

IDS UK has for many years advocated the benefits of patient education, and has seen that patient self care materials including leaflets and posters prove very popular. Good examples of such materials include Nurofen’s leaflet, “A Parent’s Guide To Coping With Everyday Childhood Illness”, which provides basic information about common illness and directs parents to seek medical advice when necessary; and “Take Control of Your Cholesterol” a Benecol leaflet encouraging healthy lifestyle changes.

The articles caused little surprise at IDS as the need for patient education literature makes a constant appearance in surgery and patient feedback. IDS UK is able to provide advice on the design and copy of such literature, and is able to effectively distribute it so it reaches the intended recipients. Let’s hope that the Self Care Campaign that has been launched as a result of the original letter is able free up surgery staff to concentrate on complex conditions. We would like to think that IDS UK already helps to do this.

I hope that you all had an enjoyable Easter and are suitably fed up (or should that be full up?) of chocolate. The recent sunny spell has ensured that we are a happy bunch at IDS, where we are busy helping our clients to advertise within GP surgeries and pharmacies.

We are often asked at IDS how to increase the effectiveness of advertising in GP / doctor surgeries and pharmacies. Well, fundamentally this comes down to two things: How the advertising is going to reach the GP surgery/pharmacy and the design used.

Reaching the surgery/pharmacy is easy – once your utilise the services of IDS UK of course! So I thought it may of interest to some of you to summarise how to improve the design of leaflets intended for healthcare environments.

Guidelines for Advertising in GP Waiting Rooms

• Consumers look for more information and less imagery once in the GP waiting room. Material should be presented to consider the healthcare condition, not just the product.

• A leaflet front cover is a product’s billboard – it needs to attract attention and engage the consumer; if not, content becomes academic.

• Pictures can be effective but more important is a title or headline, which immediately connects. This should be visible from a distance of 3-5m.

• Titles in the form of a question have proven successful whatever the category – “Are you…?; “Do you…?”, “Would you…?” type questions prompt an internal consumer response.

• Use of colour is important and the typeface should be bold and easily read; often a patient sees the leaflet from a distance first and is then drawn to it – clarity should always be the goal.

• Inside copy should be clearly written, lacking in jargon and always addressed from the patient’s perspective.

• Overall, content should be as complete as possible while still allowing for a “call to action”.

I hope that this is of interest and provides some points for consideration when at the crucial design stage. Leaflet pick up has shown us frequently that following these tips really does work.

IDS helps you get your advertising in to GP surgeries, but once there how can you ensure it's effective?