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Lighting Technology Innovators, Circada, Launch Their First Pilot At The Walton Centre NHS Trust To Improve Staff And Patient Wellbeing
Lighting firm Circada kickstarts its campaign to change people’s relationships with their natural body clock with the launch of the inaugural pilot at The Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust in Liverpool – the first trust in the UK to take part.
Following the installation of the Circadian lighting system into part of the Intensive Therapy Unit (ITU) at the hospital, a 3-month pilot will be undertaken. It is hoped that the lighting will benefit patients and staff, and potentially improve patient flow by reducing the time spent in ITU.
The pilot is part of the Trust’s innovation agenda, and if the feasibility trial is successful, the lighting could be rolled out more widely across the ITU and other patient areas.
'We hope our lighting restores some balance to patients and staff in this stressful environment. I’m excited to show the potential of our concept here, and ultimately more widely the ability to improve health and wellbeing.' - Sam Lewtas, Circada Founder.
Circada’s lighting technology works by changing the colour of the lighting throughout the day to match the daily and seasonal pattern of the sun, with superior and tailored light matched to our biological needs throughout.
Circada aims to reconnect people with nature, bringing the outside in through its innovative lighting system matching the daily and seasonal patterns of the sun. It is developing lighting controls that can be used with existing tuneable white light fixtures that is straightforward to retrofit and quick to install, with no need for commissioning while being exceptionally easy to use.
Commenting on the pilot, Circada Founder, Sam Lewtas, said: 'We hope our lighting restores some balance to patients and staff in this stressful environment. I’m excited to show the potential of our concept here, and ultimately more widely the ability to improve health and wellbeing.'
Circada further offers an end-to-end system including luminaires optimised for the human body clock, providing illumination spectrally akin to sunlight.
On the introduction of the lighting pilot, Oonagh Doherty, ITU Matron at The Walton Centre, said minimising delirium in patients is an important factor in their recovery: 'Delirium can be a big issue for the patients, especially head injured patients. Ensuring they have adequate sleep and rest is key and resetting their body clock is important for this to happen – which this innovative lighting system may help to achieve! If this pilot is successful, it may reduce the length of patient stays on ITU, therefore improving their experience and rehabilitation journey. I’m also keen to see how it helps our staff’s health and wellbeing too.'
Misalignment of the body clock, for which daily light exposure is largely responsible, has been shown to have a negative impact across many areas of human health. By retuning the light with the sun’s rhythm, we aim to demonstrate here, and in other pilots across offices, residential and hospitality industries, how the Circada solution can bring positive health and wellbeing benefits to people across society.
If you’d like to find out more, or enquire about hosting a pilot yourself, Circada encourage you to contact them through their website.
The Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust is the only hospital trust in the UK specialising in neurology, neurosurgery and pain services. Although the majority of patients come from across the Liverpool City Region, Cheshire, North Wales, Lancashire and the Isle of Man, for some specialist treatments of complex disorders The Walton Centre sees patients from all parts of the country, referred by their GPs or other neurologists, neurosurgeons and pain clinicians.
'Delirium can be a big issue for the patients, especially head injured patients. Ensuring they have adequate sleep and rest is key and resetting their body clock is important for this to happen – which this innovative lighting system may help to achieve!' - Oonagh Doherty, Intensive Therapy Unit Matron at The Walton Centre.
The Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust is rated as ‘Outstanding’ by the Care Quality Commission. The independent regulator of all health and social care services in England published its initial rating on Friday the 21st of October 2016, following announced and unannounced inspection visits to the Trust in April 2016 and on the 19th of August 2019 following inspections held in March and April 2019.
Location:
The Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust,
Lower Lane,
Fazakerley,
City of Liverpool, L9 7LJ,
Liverpool City Region, UK.