Duchess of Edinburgh with affected person Brayden and Lucy Dickinson, play specialist and VR lead at Leeds Youngsters’s Hospital (Credit score: Leeds Instructing Hospitals NHS Belief)
Digital actuality (VR) know-how is getting used at Leeds Youngsters’s Hospital to assist cut back anxiousness for younger sufferers to allow them to endure medical procedures with out normal anaesthetic.
The hospital began trialling VR headsets for distraction remedy in 2021 and steadily elevated their utilization following profitable evaluations.
In 2025, the hospital’s Play Specialist Workforce obtained £500,000 funding from Leeds Hospitals Charity, which has allowed it to make use of the headsets seven days every week to help complicated procedures starting from blood exams to lumbar punctures.
From initially supporting simply 4 hospital areas, the VR service now reaches sufferers throughout 11 completely different departments, together with oncology, dialysis, radiology and neurology.
Lucy Dickinson, play specialist and VR lead at Leeds Youngsters’s Hospital, mentioned: “VR is principally used as a distraction instrument for many completely different procedures.
“It may be a blood check, a cannula, or extra invasive procedures similar to PICC strains or lumbar punctures.
“It enhances the hospital expertise whereas guaranteeing profitable procedures.”
In a current 20-month analysis interval, the service supported greater than 600 youngsters, rising from 25 sufferers month-to-month to constantly serving to 40-50 sufferers every month, with a hit charge of 75-85%.
The hospital has 4 VR headsets with a fifth on the best way, funded by Leeds Hospitals Charity, Starlight Charity and personal household donations.
The DR.VR software program from Welsh biotechnology firm Rescape provides three sections: calm down, play, and discover, permitting youngsters to immerse in calming environments, training content material, or participating video games whereas remaining nonetheless for the process.
The Play Specialist Workforce has additionally created customized content material for the VR headsets, together with six preparation movies that familiarise youngsters with hospital environments like MRI rooms, X-ray departments, and radiotherapy earlier than their visits.
These movies function play specialists guiding youngsters by way of what to anticipate throughout their go to, serving to cut back anxiousness about unfamiliar hospital areas.
The hospital has additionally launched a digital ‘VIP Move’ system that flags sufferers with procedure-related anxiousness in medical data, guaranteeing all clinicians observe personalised play-led remedy plans.
Laura Whelan, head of nursing for youngsters’s nursing at Leeds Instructing Hospitals NHS Belief, mentioned: “You may’t actually overstate the distinction this makes.
“Now we have seen youngsters who have been beforehand frightened of needles have procedures with out flinching throughout considered one of Lucy’s periods.
“What have been as soon as extraordinarily distressing experiences for some sufferers have been reworked into manageable moments for each youngsters and their households.”
In the meantime, St George’s College of London has led work to enhance pupil psychological well being by utilizing periods in digital actuality to scale back stress and anxiousness.
The VR content material, which was developed by Section House Ltd working with St George’s, College of London, makes use of confirmed hypnosis-based stress administration methods, together with respiratory and visualisation, reimagined for VR.
