Younger patients will have an out of this world experience if they need to visit the paediatric X-Ray room at the Chesterfield Royal Hospital.

The room has been decked out with a space theme thanks to Fastsigns Chesterfield & Sheffield and Fujifilm who have worked with the hospital’s Imaging teams to transform it, making it feel less clinical and help to reduce the anxiety.

Steven Cullen, Clinical Specialist Radiographer, said: “It looks spectacular and gives the children, teenagers and even the adults a real lift when they come in. They’ll be coming for a diagnostic x-ray and won’t necessarily know what to expect so to be brought into this fun and uplifting environment really changes their mindset, puts them at ease and helps them to relax whilst we perform the scan.

“We’ve become a reference site for Fujifilm after they redeveloped our Radiology Department and they offered to come in and design the space for us. It was their idea to fill the walls with spaceships, aliens, planets, stars, installing some mood lighting and even put what can only be described as a mission control panel across our own scanning booth. It’s really very inventive, visual and I think some of the parents and even my colleagues get a bit of a buzz from it as well.”

Paul Allison, Director at Fastsigns Sheffield & Chesterfield said: “We have been planning this project with FujiFilm and Chesterfield Royal Hospital for almost a year and we are delighted to have played our part and finally bring this to life in a challenging year.”

Non-Clinical Environments

Using artwork and colourful surroundings to help relax patients is something that has been happening in many different areas across the hospital. The NGS Macmillan Unit has been designed with a glass front to bring the countryside view to chemotherapy patients, there are pictures of the Derbyshire landscapes and landmarks above most beds in the new and refurbished wards and the main entrance was designed in a way to make it feel less clinical.

Steven Cullen added: “We’ve done it for the adults as well. Another of our rooms has now got a huge mural of the Chesterfield town centre where a panoramic photograph has been touched up to resemble a painting. It has the same effect as the space theme in that people look at it and try to find their house, favourite pub or restaurant.

“I suppose you could call it a distraction technique to help put patients at ease and give them something else to concentrate on instead of the machinery, which can be imposing against our very high walls, and whatever it is that’s causing them to be here.

“It’s been very well received, encouraged discussion between our patients and radiographers and we’re hoping that we can do something very similar in other x-ray rooms, maybe even in other imaging modalities such as CT and MRI. Anything such as this that improves the patient experience is worth considering.”

It took less than a day to install the artwork, that can be wiped down in compliance with infection control guidelines, in each room.

FastSigns Sheffield and Chesterfield supports the marketing and economic growth of the town through Chesterfield Champions, a network of over 180 organisations across Chesterfield and North Derbyshire.