Worcestershire’s VisualEyes sets up virtual tour for children’s hospital

VisualEyes, a visual technology firm based in Bewdley, Worcestershire, has partnered with Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust to launch a new virtual tour.

It’s been developed to help children and young people become more familiar with the hospital before appointments or procedures and help to reduce anxiety and nerves.

Funded by Alder Hey Children’s Charity, the experience allows users to walk around and explore the hospital interactively from their mobile or tablet before they arrive.

The facility has been scanned using the latest virtual technology and captured in 4K quality, with phase one of the project featuring the main hospital atrium, ward areas, outpatients, theatres and emergency department.

Spanning 188,594 sq ft, it’s the most extensive map of its kind in any health setting in Europe, and one of the largest such 360-degree captures in the world.

The tour was visited more than 7,000 times in the first 72 hours after launch.

Carl Timms, Creative Director of VisualEyes, said: “Launching the 360-degree virtual map is part of the hospital’s mission to improve the experience for children and young people coming to the hospital.

“We worked with Alder Hey’s communications team to ensure this project met the aims of their Vision 2030 initiative.

“Our aim is to make visiting Alder Hey as positive an experience as possible and to make learning about what happens in one of Europe’s busiest and biggest children’s hospitals both informative and fun.”