Bradford Royal Infirmary has becomes the first acute hospital in England to get official recognition for its work improving the environment and care it offers dementia patients.

It means the hospital can now use the ‘Working to Become Dementia Friendly’ symbol issued by the Dementia Action Alliance (DAA).

The recognition came after the hospital got involved in The Right Care project which started in October last year as a partnership between the DAA and the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement.

Since 2012, more than 900 hospital staff have attended dementia awareness sessions focusing on person-centred care and some have also received interactive education on what it is like to have dementia by wearing an old-age simulation suit which mimics the ageing body.

The BRI has had major renovations to make some of its wards more dementia-friendly and now plans are also under way to give St Luke’s a similar makeover too.

The Foundation Trust has also improved signage on toilets and changed the colour of all its toilet seats to make them more dementia-friendly, as well as installing special clocks which include the date and time to help patient orientation on the wards.

And the forget-me-not flower symbol scheme has been rolled out in a bid to identify patients by putting the symbol on their records and bedhead.

Simon Wallace, project manager for the Dementia Action Alliance for Yorkshire & Humber, said: “Bradford has used extensive research and consultation with patients, families and carers in order to design the improvements – including the type of training delivered to hundreds of staff members across the Foundation Trust. The results speak for themselves.”

Chief Nurse Juliette Greenwood said: “Everyone connected with providing care to patients with dementia throughout all our hospitals are extremely proud of this award.

“We are also delighted at the progress that we have made in such a short time in transforming our ward environments to help make hospital stays less anxious for these patients with cognitive impairments.

“We will continue to work hard to improve the care we provide here in Bradford and we will strive to continuously develop our services and set up new projects to support the increasing numbers of people with the condition that we expect to treat in the coming years.”