School children’s artwork improves green space of local brain injury unit
Talented secondary school children have enhanced an outdoor space for brain injury patients at Leamington Hospital.
Sustainability, nursing and maintenance teams at South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust (SWFT), which runs the Central England Rehabilitation Unit based at Leamington Hospital, worked with Campion School pupils to install colourful artwork in the hospital grounds.
Campion School art teachers and their students designed ten nature based boards to brighten up a fence running alongside Allsopp Ward. The construction, which patients regularly pass when visiting the site’s gardens, was installed to cover essential hospital ventilation equipment. The make-over has now made the space more enjoyable for patients, visitors and staff and has become a place of interest in the grounds.
As stated by NHS Forest in 2019, research shows that access to green spaces has enormous benefits to people’s wellbeing including improving the patient hospital experience, promoting active recovery and rehabilitation and reducing staff stress. Therefore, as part of SWFT’s recently launched three-year Green Plan, the Trust is placing significance on improving outdoor spaces across their sites, with this project just one of the settings SWFT planned to improve. You can access the Green Plan here, which also highlights the actions the organisation will be taking to becoming net zero carbon emissions by 2040.
Kathy Wagstaff, Clinical Lead for Leamington Hospital, said: “The gardens at Leamington Hospital provide welcoming spaces for patients and families to be able to spend time outdoors. The large fence that covers the air handling unit is necessary, but did look uninspiring. It is wonderful that Campion School have been able to provide such fantastic artwork. Its heart-warming to know that there are people willing to donate time and funding to organisations such as ours to improve the patient environment and experience.”
Daljit Kooner-Sandhu, Campion School Head of Art said, “We felt privileged to have been offered a great opportunity for our students to participate in this prestigious, community-based project and we hope the designs produced will brighten up the environment for staff, patients and their families at the rehabilitation hospital. Our students have expressed their joy and excitement in producing the artwork throughout the project.”
The artwork was kindly funded by the Allsopp family, with funds raised in memory of Martin Allsopp - a much loved porter at Leamington Hospital, who sadly passed away due to COVID-19 in 2021.
Luke Allsopp, Martin’s son, said: “My father would be so humbled that the money raised will be going towards a brilliant project like this. We know the artwork will bring a smile to the patients’ faces, something my dad tried to do every day he was at the hospital.”
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