Staff at Scunthorpe hospital will be taking part in a 24-hour video gaming stream fundraiser to improve the experience of patients having an MRI.
Kris Weavill, Diagnostic and Imaging Systems Manager, will be live streaming himself playing popular video games, Minecraft and Surgeon Simulator 2, on Thursday 9 February in the Radiology department at Scunthorpe, starting at 11am and finishing at 11am the next day.
He won’t be alone though, as Kris will be joined by his colleagues who’ll be popping by during the event to play the games.
Kris previously organised a similar event at Grimsby hospital in 2020. The event raised more than £2,000.
A new MRI suite opened at Scunthorpe hospital in early 2022 and fundraising is underway to purchase additional, enhanced equipment to make life much easier for the increasing number of people needing scans. The money raised through The Health Tree Foundation’s (HTF) MRI appeal will go towards the Innovision system, which will enable patients to choose colour lighting in the MRI scanner room, view relaxing images and films and listen to immersive sounds.
Kris, who is doing this in his own time, said: “We’ll be building a virtual hospital in Minecraft and running a competition for the fastest heart surgeon in Surgeon Simulator 2.
“The audience will be invited to name wards and doctors as we play and staff at the hospital are welcome to pop down on their break to assist in the planning of the virtual hospital or a bit of heart surgery.
“The team I lead directly supports the MRI team and I’m happy we’re able to contribute to improve the experience for our patients.”
Agfa Healthcare and 4ways Healthcare has donated some goodies to give away during the event, including mugs, pens and even bath bombs!
Cheyenne Devine, Acting Head of CT/MRI at Scunthorpe, said: “This system will greatly improve the service we provide to our patients, in particular the paediatric and claustrophobic patients. It will give patients a more relaxed MRI experience and allow them to have control of what they would like to watch or listen to.
“It will reduce the number of patients that have incomplete exams due to claustrophobia, and allow for faster and complete diagnosis for patients who would have normally struggled with claustrophobia. We want to give our patients the best experience we can in our department and this will go a long way to helping us provide that.”
You can donate to the appeal on JustGiving. The link for the live stream will also be available on this page. If you’re interested in fundraising for the MRI appeal, there is more information about getting involved on the HTF website.
