Charity funding brings VR headset to Medical Day Care

Meet 10-year-old Olivia.

Olivia has been receiving care for her eczema at Sheffield Children’s for over a year.

Initially, her treatment involved steroid creams and other topical options but when this was unsuccessful, she began to receive injections.

Olivia really struggled to get injections, but she is in luck! Thanks to charity funding the Medical Daycare team have access to VR headsets to help with situations just like this.

The Charity fund projects above and beyond NHS provision and has funded the loan of a virtual reality (VR) headset to help patients in medical daycare who can be anxious with injections.

Now, Olivia has become a pro with her injections and when she visits Medical Day Care every four weeks, she uses a combination of VR and Entonox gas administered via a mouthpiece.

Medical Daycare accommodates medical patients up to 16 years old and sees patients for either half day treatments – if they’re having a blood test or a quick procedure – or full days.

When asked about the headset, Olivia said:

“It blocks out all the things you see so you don’t have to focus on what’s going on around you and you can just look at the screen.”

Innovation like this will be studied at the National Centre for Child Health Technology, which is our current fundraising appeal.

Support this work to get more technology into healthcare or find out more here.