Media Enquiries

The communications team provides a point of contact for journalists working in all areas of the media.

We are also responsible for coordinating filming and photography requests, as well as finding and putting you in contact with experts who can act in an advisory capacity or perform interviews about specialist topics.

St George’s takes patient responsibility extremely seriously and the communications team strictly enforces patients’ rights when managing filming and photography on all of our sites.

Media enquiries

For all media enquiries Monday to Friday, 9am – 5pm, please email communications@stgeorges.nhs.uk where a member of the team will evaluate and action your request. You can also call us on 020 8266 6218.

If you have an urgent query outside working hours and on weekends and bank holidays please page the on-call press officer via 0844 822 2888. You will need to ask for pager SG548 and leave a short message regarding the subject and urgency of your enquiry and your contact details.

Condition checks

If you are calling the communications team for a condition check without a patient name and date of birth, there is little we can do to support your enquiry. Please bear in mind that our emergency department alone sees in excess of 300 patients a day.

When we receive requests for information about patients, it is our duty to seek consent from the patient or the patients’ relatives. Without consent, no patient information can be disclosed.

Fast facts about St George’s

  • We have 9000 staff
  • We serve a population of 3.5 million people across south west London, Surrey, Sussex, Hampshire and beyond
  • We are the largest healthcare provider, major teaching hospital and tertiary centre for south west London, Surrey and beyond – and one of the largest healthcare providers in the UK
  • Our main site, St George’s Hospital – one of the country’s principal teaching hospitals – is shared with St George’s, University of London, which trains medical students and carries out advanced medical research
  • We are one of 11 adult and children major trauma centres in the UK
  • We are one of eight hyper acute stroke units – and the first 24/7 thrombectomy centre in the UK
  • We are one of the busiest of the eight heart attack centres in London
  • We are an accredited centre of excellence for trauma, neurology, cardiology, cancer and blood pressure services
  • We are the national centre for family HIV care and bone marrow transplantation for non-cancer diseases.

Each year at St George’s:

  • 5000 babies born
  • 150,000 people seen in our emergency department
  • 650,000 outpatient appointments
  • 50,000 patients admitted for unplanned care
  • 50,000 planned operations

Filming requests

St George’s receives documentary, location and live news broadcast filming requests on a daily basis – we consider all proposals on an individual basis and will try to accommodate proposals where possible, if appropriate.

No photography or filming is permitted without prior arrangement and agreement. Our patients always come first and we have a duty to protect their safety and confidentiality.

Anyone found filming or taking photographs on the Trust premises without the permission of the Trust’s communications team will be asked to leave by the security department and may face prosecution.

The Trust has a location charge tariff in place for those wishing to film or take photographs for commercial purposes. The location charge will vary depending on the nature of the project – prices on application.

If filming is due to take place outside the regular office hours, an additional site management fee will be added. Charges for parking are not covered by the location charge.

Those wishing to film will be expected to provide a copy of their public liability insurance document before filming starts. They will also be required to gain the prior consent of any patients or members of the public who take part in the filming/photography with copies of the consent forms supplied to the communications team.

If you are interested in filming at St George’s, please email communications@stgeorges.nhs.uk with all the following information so a member of the communications team is able to consider and get back to you:

  • Name and organisation
  • Purpose of production
  • Proposed subject/s covered by filming (including staff and patients)
  • Timings – proposed filming dates and times, anticipated duration
  • Number of people in the crew
  • Information about the equipment – handheld, lighting, tripods etc
  • Has it has been commissioned?
  • When it will be shown?