Sky Ceilings to help boost patient mental wellbeing at Gloucestershire’s hospitals

These innovative sky ceilings are decorated with bright pictures of outdoor scenes such as trees to add a calming feeling to treatment rooms.

Some of these light panels are already in place in the oncology unit to help cancer patients having radiotherapy or chemotherapy. Cheltenham and Gloucester Hospitals Charity is now appealing for donations to help brighten up even more spaces.

Dougal Fraser knows first-hand how much of a benefit these sky ceilings are for patients. Diagnosed with oesophageal cancer on New Year’s Eve 2020, he underwent chemotherapy and radiotherapy to shrink his tumour.

The business consultant, from Cheltenham, said: “When you have radiotherapy, you have to be in the room on your own. You are alone with your own thoughts and laid there looking up at the ceiling.

“I am passionate about fishing and being outside, and to lie in that position and to look up and be able to see green spaces and a sense of the outdoors meant a great deal.

“Having an image above you that allows you to take yourself to another place, is priceless really. It sounds like a small thing, putting a nice tree on the ceiling, but it means so much to people.”

Dougal, 55, and a dad-of-two, finished his radiotherapy in April and he and his long-term partner Jules decided to get married before he underwent major surgery in June 2021.

“I was determined to make 2021 a positive year and to start my treatment and get on with what needed to be done,” he said.

“In July of that year, I was told my cancer was stage two and that it hadn’t spread. I now say I had cancer, not I have cancer and I am back sailing and doing the things I love.”

The charity is appealing for donations to help fund the new sky ceilings which cost £3,000 to install per area. One of the areas that will benefit from the panels is the Endoscopy Unit at Cheltenham General Hospital where patients go for tests using a small camera to see inside your body.

Yordanka Ivanova, Endoscopy Assistant Practitioner said: “Having these pictures on the ceilings of our procedure rooms is going to play a big role in helping our patients.

“I have worked in a unit which had these sky panels and I have seen the effect they can have on patients, making them feel much more relaxed and less anxious about their upcoming procedure.”

The sky ceilings are part of our new Big Plus Fund to enhance the patient experience or fund new equipment over and above what the NHS can provide. Other projects include a baby loss remembrance garden at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital. With your support, a new calming outdoor space will be built to provide a place for anyone affected by baby loss to go and reflect.

Richard Smith, Associate Director of the Charity, said: “Thank you to everyone who has made a donation or has started a fundraising drive for the Big Plus Fund so far, we are so grateful. These light panels and the new garden are just some of the ways we are working towards enhancing the experience for hospital patients in 2023. If any businesses, community groups or individuals would like to talk to us about how they can help bring these projects to life, we’d love to hear from them.”

You can donate online or by cheque, raise funds on JustGiving and MuchLoved, or choose to support the fund as a business or community group. To make a donation online please click here or call 0300 422 3231.