Discussion group: Perfect helth websites - case study (Acute care trust)
Chair: Valerie Cooper, Web manager, Luton and Dunstable Hospital Foundation Trust

In this session we look at the role of an Acute Trust Website for a Foundation Trust Hospital. We will consider identifying our audience(s), how we want to engage with them, what depth and width of information to provide and how to encourage engagement with the viewer.

Areas for consideration are: - information that we must make available (FOI, Policies etc), information that we want to make available, attractive ways of presenting information and of encouraging the reader to stay on the site. Making the visitor feel engaged and comfortable is essential and this can be achieved by ensuring the site is easy to navigate and keeping the site fresh, interesting and relevant.

As a Foundation Trust hospital, we also have Governors and a membership with which we need to engage on an ongoing basis. Recruitment and retention of members is important, but ongoing engagement via events and an on-line forum and this session will look at potential ways to achieve this.