WEDNESDAY, 6 MARCH, 2019

EMBARGOED UNTIL PHOTO OPPORTUNITY: 11am, Thursday, 7 March 2019, Ward 30, Tayside Children’s Hospital, Ninewells Hospital

Photographs attached: Stills from video

NHS Tayside video to reassure children visiting hospital launched

A video to help reassure children going in to hospital for surgery was officially launched today (Thursday) at Tayside Children’s Hospital in Dundee.

NHS Tayside has teamed up with Scottish charity ‘What? Why? Children in Hospital’ (WWCIH) to create a video to help children and their families prepare for a general anaesthetic for surgery.

The film, which is available online on NHS Tayside and the charity’s website, was filmed in Tayside’s Children’s Hospital.

Consultant anaesthetist Dr Grant Rodney said, “Every year around 3000 children have a general anaesthetic in the children’s hospital in Dundee. We know children and their families may be anxious about what will happen and what they will experience. We are delighted to have helped to produce a film to explain this, to reassure and to prepare children, and to make the experience as positive as it possibly can be.”

The video, which was funded by Cash for Kids and the Hugh Fraser Foundation, has already been used to show young patients the process of coming in for surgery and has helped ease anxiety ahead of an operation.

One parent said, “My son was feeling very anxious about the general anaesthetic. We watched the video together and it really helped him, he now knows what to expect when he gets his general anaesthetic tomorrow. He feels less scared about going to sleep and waking up. It also helped me and his mum feel more prepared.”

The WWCIH charity was founded in 2015 by Dr Marit Boot to make child-friendly videos about hospital tests. Marit was inspired to start the charity after her five-year-old daughter required an MRI scan and she was unable to find any videos that would explain it to her daughter in a simple way.

Marit said, “It was a pleasure filming the paediatric anaesthetics team in Ninewells Hospital. Dr Grant Rodney and his team looked after their patients in a very caring way and took the time to answer every question patients and parents had. The result is a video which is very reassuring and calm, it will help to reduce anxiety in thousands of parents and children coming to hospital for a general anaesthetic.”

The video can be found on YouTube (WWCIHcharity), www.wwcih.org.uk/GA or on the Children’s Services section of NHS Tayside’s website.

The video follows the launch of the bilingual Big Brave podcast last month, which offers advice and support to children visiting hospital.

The project, a collaboration between NHS Tayside and Dundee City Council’s Bilingual Service, is aimed at young patients admitted for surgery and other serious medical procedures.

The Big Brave podcast, supported by the Children’s Health Scotland charity, has already seen audio clips provided in English, Arabic, Polish and Punjabi and the team hope further recordings can be made in other languages.

The podcasts are available via iTunes and on the Big Brave website www.thebigbrave.com

Also available on The Big Brave website are pictures or 'infographics' which illustrate the 'going to theatre experience'.  These were developed in conjunction with Isabel Revans, a recent Dundee medical art graduate and were supported by the charity Children's Health Scotland (https://www.childrenshealthscotland.org/).

Contact:

Debbie Huband

NHS Tayside Communications

(01382) 740134