Award winners of a photo competition which aims improve the experience of elderly patients at the Bradford Royal Infirmary (BRI) through improvements to the ward environment have been announced.

Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is one of just 12 bodies throughout the UK to have secured a £50,000 grant for The King’s Fund Enhancing the Healing Environment Programme, which is funded by the Department of Health. 

The Foundation Trust is contributing a further £15,000 towards the scheme which will transform wards 23 (orthopaedic trauma) and 29 (elderly care) by the end of September.

Hospital staff recently launched a photo competition around the theme ‘Yorkshire Outdoors’ to gather an archive of more than 100 photographs at the BRI which will be displayed on the wards throughout the year.

Clinical Services Manager for the Elderly, Debbie Beaumont, said: “Coming into hospital can often be a confusing experience for dementia patients. Many won’t know where they are and why they are here, so they spend a lot of time wandering the corridors, trying to find a way out, and this can often leave them highly agitated, frightened and anxious.

“When this happens it can be hard for staff to communicate with patients so by refurbishing our wards to make them more stimulating and including photographs depicting familiar Yorkshire scenes, it is our hope that this this will add comfort to those patients who might find coming into hospital distressing.

The competition which attracted more than 50 entries was judged by, amongst others, well-known Yorkshire photographer Ian Beesley.

First prize in the photo competition went to Lindsey Johnson, an Education Business Partnership Officer with Bradford Council, for his picture entitled ‘Above Halton Gill.’

Second prize went to Dale Wain, a social and commercial photographer from Cleckheaton, for his photograph of a train passing over the Ribblehead viaduct.

Third prize went to Tony Caunt, a member of Bradford Camera Club and a Wilsden parish councillor, for his portrait entitled ‘The lone tree and the limestone.’

The winners will collect their prizes at the project’s launch of the refurbished wards on September 30.

The EHE project team have been working throughout the year to transform wards 23 and 30 in time for the September 30 opening of the newly renovated wards.

Deputy Chief Nurse, Sally Scales, stated: “A project like this is very important to us as evidence suggests that those with dementia often have longer hospital stays than those without and their experience of hospital care is generally not as good as other patients.

“By improving the environment, we hope that we can help enable patients with dementia to recover their health more quickly.

“We can’t cure everything but we can hopefully make these improvements which will ensure that patients with dementia are less anxious and less agitated when they need to come into hospital.”

The photo competition launch in May took place at the Older Peoples Focus Group, run by Bradford Council, to reach as large a population of local older people as possible.