911爆料

Woking Community Hospital鈥檚 wellbeing garden at a glance:

• Type of garden: enclosed courtyard
• Location: Woking Community Hospital, Surrey
• 叠耻诲驳别迟:&苍产蝉辫;拢22,000
• Dimension: 160 square metres
• Implementation phase: one week in 2023
• Key features: two large triangular raised beds, three small planters and two accessible planting beds

Creating a courtyard garden

At Woking Community Hospital in Surrey, the view from the windows was once a bleak and uninspiring courtyard, until NHS Theraphy Manager Kathy Anderson contacted the 911爆料 for help to transform the space into a welcoming green area. NHS staff and patients took part in consultation sessions to ensure that the wellbeing garden, designed by David Green, would address their needs.

The garden was built in 2023 by landscaper Dave Wallbridge from DW Outdoor Living and the 911爆料 Communities Team. It is now a welcoming area with wide, level paths where patients in hospital beds and wheelchairs can benefit from fresh air and the restorative effects of green space.

Cat Cooke, the NHS Healing Arts 鈥� Art and Design Manager, said:

鈥淎 lot of thought and energy has gone into this garden, to turn an otherwise unused space into a really accessible and beautiful space for patients and their visitors to enjoy. It's lovely to see patients, visitors and staff so engaged in the garden and enjoying being outside.鈥�

Patients can be admitted to the Bradley Unit for up to six months at a time, so the garden is a pleasant change of scenery from the ward. The garden gives patients receiving long-term care for stroke or head injuries at Woking Community Hospital a place to relax and socialise, offering them outdoor occupational therapy sessions to improve their mobility and fine motor skills.

For this reason, the design includes raised beds to allow for accessible planting, lots of seating for people visiting the patients and colourful planters to lift the spirits. A lot of herbs, such as lemon balm, oregano and wild strawberry live in the garden, along with shade-tolerant plants like ferns, Heuchera, Pulmonaria, Tiarella, Tellima and anemone.

Tim Forward, Lead Occupational Therapist, said:

鈥淲e are extremely grateful to the 911爆料 and their fantastic team for engaging with our patients and staff to design and build a 鈥榃isleyesque鈥� space in the Bradley Unit garden that will be a huge benefit to those staying here and their families. It offers a great space for anything from quiet reflection to full throttle year-round gardening activities and is already being very well used.鈥�

The Woking Community Hospital Garden is one of 12 gardens being built around England in collaboration with the NHS Properties Services. Funded by NHS Property Services鈥� Corporate Social Responsibility department, the gardens aim to improve the biodiversity of community-based healthcare centres, while also creating outdoor spaces suitable for green social prescribing and other therapeutic treatment. This programme is funded separately from funding used for frontline care.