In 2022, the RHS partnered with the NHS trust at University Hospital Lewisham (UHL), to co-create its first wellbeing garden for hospital staff affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. The aim of the project was to create a vital hub for NHS staff, patients and the wider community to come together and connect through nature.
How the UHL Wellbeing Garden began
During the pandemic, Maria Leong, an anaesthetist registrar at UHL, contacted the RHS requesting support to develop a garden, to enable NHS staff to take a break from their intense workloads – a space to breathe and to reflect and remember colleagues they had lost to Covid-19.
Maria explains, “For patients and their relatives, it will be a chance to escape the clinical environment and talk with their loved ones. We are working on involving lots of different patient groups, such as paediatric patients, and those with chronic pain and dementia. The path will also be able to accommodate hospital beds, enabling staff to bring stable but critically ill patients outside to feel fresh air, sunshine and be in a green space.”
Leading garden designer Adam Frost, who is passionate about celebrating our NHS heroes, designed the scheme.