Immersive virtual-reality films could be used in the NHS to manage pain ‘within a year’, according to the health secretary

When Kay Smith asked if she could have surgery without a general anaesthetic, the consultant was understandably wary.

Smith insisted she would feel no pain if she wore a virtual-reality headset and immersed herself in her favourite scuba dive in the Red Sea.

The surgeon agreed — on one condition. “He said, ‘I am going to make the first cut and if you feel anything at any point I will stop.’ I got to 43 minutes and I told him I only had two minutes left [on the dive film] and was he nearly finished?

“He said, ‘I am just doing the final stitch,’” Smith said.

The operation to remove pre-cancerous growths left her with 12 stitches on her arm and shoulder, and a claim