Hot air gowns help patient health

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Gowns filled with hot air which aim to keep patients warm before, during and after surgery will be unveiled in Powys hospitals later.

Brecon and Llandrindod Wells hospitals will be the first in Wales to use the gowns, called bair huggers, which will also help to tackle infection.

Patients can control the temperature and move around in the gowns.

Rosanne Lyles, matron at Brecon hospital, said some patients told her they wanted to take the gowns home.

The bair huggers look like normal gowns but can be filled with air at special filling stations, in the ward or in the operating theatre.

They can also be topped up with a portable battery-powered air pump.

Judith Paget, chief executive of Powys Local Health Board (LHB) said keeping patients warm kept them well.

The patients love them - in fact some of them say they'd like to take the gowns home! Rosanne Lyles, matron at Brecon hospital

"It's an old idea, but now we can use the very latest technology to help us," she said.

Ms Lyles said the hospital had found that patients' body temperature would drop after leaving the operating theatre, so the gowns were introduced to keep their core temperature stable.

"It's certainly made a big difference. They're very easy and friendly to use, and they give patients the freedom to control the temperature and to walk around," she said.

"The patients love them - in fact some of them say they'd like to take the gowns home!"

Powys LHB said the gowns were one of the steps it had taken as part of the 1000 Lives campaign, a two year project by the NHS in Wales to try to prevent 1,000 avoidable deaths.