A rainbow of colour is being introduced at Oxfordshire's major hospitals to brighten up wards and corridors.

NHS managers are moving away from the traditional "magnolia approach" to health service decor, at Oxford's John Radcliffe, Churchill, and Radcliffe Infirmary, and The Horton, Banbury, in a bid to improve the environment for patients and staff.

Some areas have already been redecorated, including the Churchill Hospital's old entrance, which has been brightened up with bright orange and blue walls and intricate designs on the floor.

The theme will be carried on into the hospital's new MRI unit, which is being built in the Headington hospital's radiology department.

Trevor Payne, head of facilities for the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals, responsible for the four hospitals, said: "It would be nice to have corporate colours throughout our hospitals, but there are so many different buildings and environments that we need to do different things in different places, because of light and other factors.

"We're trying to incorporate a palette of five or six colours so that when we get more money we can pick it up in other areas. It incorporates designs in the flooring as well, which break up the squareness and drabness of the corridors."

"It makes a difference to patients. But it's also made a real difference for staff and to retention levels.

"In one of the redecorated wards, the sister said it had made staff happier, because it's their environment too."

The new decoration will be paid for with a mixture of funding from individual ward environment budgets, which total £5,000 each, the national Patient Environment fund, and ORH estates.