The garden gives patients receiving long-term care for stroke or head injuries at Woking Community Hospital in Surrey a place to relax and socialise, offering them outdoor occupational therapy sessions to improve their mobility and fine motor skills.

Creating a courtyard garden

The view from the hospital windows, which was once a bleak and uninspiring courtyard, has been transformed into a welcoming area with wide level paths, so that patients in hospital beds and wheelchairs can benefit from fresh air and the restorative effects of green space.

Cat Cooke, the NHS Healing Arts – Art and Design Manager, says:

“A 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.”

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 aims to improve the patients overall physical and mental wellbeing, and potentially even their recovery time by having better access to nature.

One gentleman, who used to love gardening before his stroke, explains how important and rewarding it has been for him:

“I am now able to do something that I used to do again.”

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.

Tim Forward, Lead Occupational Therapist, says:

“We are extremely grateful to the RHS and their fantastic team for engaging with our patients and staff to design and build a ‘Wisleyesque’ 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.”

The Woking Community Hospital Garden is one of six gardens being built around England in collaboration with the NHS Properties Services. NHS staff and patients have been involved with the designs to make sure that the gardens address the individual needs of each site and the people working or receiving treatment there.

Funded by NHS Property Services’ 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.

Visit our funding pages to find out how you can contribute to future NHS wellbeing gardens.