MOST people will be used to seeing a bus stop by a busy road... but perhaps a more unfamiliar sight would be in a busy hospital corridor.

A new scheme has been launched at Southend Hospital in a bid to help calm dementia patients feel much less agitated when they visit the hospital.

The new ‘stop’ features a sign, a timetable and a bench but there won’t be any buses stopping. Indeed. it will never have a bus actually stop at it.

The innovative scheme is part of a joint project between the hospital and Arriva buses and bosses hope it will help patients remain calm, even if they have begun to wander.

Sarah Ecclestone, practice development clinical skills nurse, said: “Unfortunately, patients with dementia often have short term memory problems and can become agitated in unfamiliar surroundings, often wandering, with the common theme of patients wanting to go home.

“Although patients may have short term memory loss, they are often able to recall familiar everyday landmarks from their long term memory and a bus stop can be one of those.

“Research has found that individuals become much more relaxed at the sight of a bus stop, sitting down and waiting for their ‘bus home’.

“It is something they often become fixated upon, and this installation will help put them at ease and take away some of that anxiety.”

The initiative came about after nurse Sarah and Senior Sister Hazel Stacey contacted Arriva, which weighed in behind the project.

Colin Wright, General Manager for Arriva Herts & Essex, said: “We are delighted to be involved in such a thoughtful project.

“When Southend Hospital first approached us, we were honoured to be considered, and even happier to help.

“The work that the hospital and colleagues do is invaluable to the most vulnerable members of the local community, and anything we can do at Arriva to support this is very important to us as a business.”

He added: “If the bus stop makes even just one person smile, we’ll consider it a success.”