A £510,000 HOSPITALrefurbishment to improve life for Bradford dementia patients is up for a top national award.

The team behind the work at St Luke's Hospital has been nominated and shortlisted for the 2014 Building Better Healthcare (BBH) award for best interior design project.

The estates team won the same accolade two years ago when staff transformed wards at the Bradford Royal Infirmary.

The nationally acclaimed Enhancing the Healing Environment project to transform the public spaces at St Luke’s Hospital was the first refurbishment of its kind for patients with dementia in an NHS hospital.

It saw the Department of Health invest more than £510,000 towards upgrading facilities to create a more calming space to influence patient behaviour and improve the wards for patients with dementia, visitors and their families.

Project lead and head of patient experience Shelley Bailey said: "Our work is a great example of using knowledge and experience to create a very human and serene environment for patients, carers and their families, hopefully helping to make their experiences of hospital easier and more relaxing."

The award ceremony takes place at The Brewery, London, where alongside Mrs Bailey, team members lead dementia nurse Danielle Woods, quality, standard and governance manager Munir Yousef and Shane Embleton, of the estates department, will attend on behalf of their colleagues.

Mr Embleton said: "Everyone in the team is immensely proud of our achievements, achievements that would not have been possible without the support of the Foundation Trust, the Department of Health and important local groups like the Alzheimer’s Society in Bradford, Carers’ Resource and Meri Yaadain, an organisation which aims to raise awareness of dementia and give support to sufferers from the South Asian communities in the district.

"The project has been a huge success in uplifting the main corridors, not only making them dementia friendly; but turning dull soulless areas into bright interesting public spaces for all to enjoy.

"We are extremely proud that we’ve been shortlisted for the Building Better Healthcare awards for a second time, which again recognises the excellent healing environments being created at our hospitals."

The public spaces and creation of two special gardens were transformed under a Yorkshire Outdoors dementia-friendly theme which saw art work commissioned from both artists and patients.

Corridors were painted in relaxing strong colours and vibrant installations, including photographs depicting the surrounding countryside and seasons, which were used to aid reminiscence of sufferers and generate conversation.