Bradford Hospitals’ Charity has launched an ambitious fundraising campaign to transform the radiology departments at Bradford Teaching Hospitals into warm and welcoming spaces for children.

The ‘Rays a Smile’ campaign aims to raise £250,000 to:

• completely refurbish the radiology waiting areas at Bradford Royal Infirmary and St Luke’s Hospital to make them more child-friendly, creating designated safe spaces kitted out with distraction toys,
• revamp some rooms used for X-ray, ultrasound, CT scans and MRI scans with colourful décor to distract children,
• Create a ‘snuggle room’ for parents to soothe babies to sleep before scans, to avoid the need for general anaesthetic,
• Purchase a ‘Relax and View’ machine, which plays films and videos while the young patient is undergoing an MRI scan,
• Purchase sound systems to play music for children while they are scanned.

Most radiology staff work from the basement in Bradford Royal Infirmary, which has little natural light, offering X-ray, ultrasound, CT and MRI. A smaller unit of ultrasound and X-ray is based at St Luke’s Hospital’s D Block.

Almost all patients treated by Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, either as an inpatient or outpatient, are referred for imaging. More than 20,000 children and young people are imaged each year.

It is believed that a brighter, more child-friendly environment will benefit all patients, including some adults who find imaging difficult or stressful. They also believe it will speed up scan times because people will be less anxious, and provide them with better quality images.