Fancy a bit of Killing Eve during prostate surgery?
AN NHS hospital claims to be the first in Britain to give anxious patients video goggles to distract them during operations.
They can watch a movie or TV box sets through the hi-tech headsets while they have surgery under local anaesthetic.
But horror films or comedies are not advised as they could make the casualty jolt and squirm while under the knife.
While some might expect such a service if they went private, the NHS is now trialling the wifi-enabled goggles in the hope they will actually save money.
With the patient more at ease they will not have to be sedated and will recover and leave hospital quicker, freeing bed space.
Two pairs of the £1,000 video glasses have been sent by American firm iTV Goggles to the Royal Bournemouth Hospital in Dorset. They can stream HD and 3D videos, live TV or boxsets through NOW TV.
Patient Steve Mountain watched two episodes of the last series of BBC’s Killing Eve on the headset while having a prostate procedure. He said: ‘I was far too engrossed in watching TV to think about what was happening to me.
‘I have been through a similar procedure before without the goggles and I had to be quite heavily sedated. I was away with the fairies. But this time I was awake through the whole thing. I was aware of stuff going on around me but I was trying to concentrate on what was happening on the screen.’
Live footage of the surgery can even be projected to the device for patients who wish to watch their procedure.
The endoscopy unit at the RBH will spend the next six months testing the devices and if they are a success they will be rolled out to other areas of the hospital. Dr Clare
Bent, an interventional radiologist and endoscopist believes the TV goggles will reduce anxiety in patients and save the NHS thousands.
She said: ‘Sedation makes the patients sleepy but can take more than six hours for someone to recover enough to be discharged. Quite often they stay overnight.
‘But having a procedure under just local anaesthetic means a patient can be discharged after one or two hours.’