MRI scanner given nature makeover to calm patients

A leading hospital said new, nature-inspired artwork on an MRI scanner and walls would help to save lives by making patients calmer.

Bruno Carmo from Addenbrooke's in Cambridge said scans made some people feel claustrophobic and anxious but a calmer environment reduced the likelihood of them pulling out and having to return another day.

He said: "Ensuring a patient completes their scan first time around can literally save hundreds of pounds, thousands in some cases.

"It’s different, it’s beautiful and it’s friendly. It just fills my soul."

The artwork has been wrapped on to a state-of-the-art GE scanner, which went live in July.

It was funded by Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust (ACT), which also installed two £30,000 audio-visual systems to enable patients to listen to music and watch videos during scans.

If a patient cannot go ahead with a scan, Mr Carmo said they had to join "a long waiting list to have it done under general anaesthetic", which is more expensive and requires bed space.

Ilse Patterson, lead R&D MRI Radiographer at Addenbrooke’s, said the artwork "definitely changes the mood for the patients".

"Just to be able to make it that little bit easier for the patients in any way we can is a really positive thing for us."

Colin Horn, managing director of Grosvenor Interiors, the company who installed the artwork, said he started working in healthcare after losing his son Adam to leukaemia.

He noticed Adam was a lot happier in hospital when they were decorated "in a more age-appropriate way".

"There is nothing good that comes from your child dying but, realistically, I wouldn’t be doing this if that hadn’t happened," he said.

"At times it was very hard to find a positive after Adam died, but this is my positive.

"We have actively made a lot of difference to people’s lives."

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