Wellbeing Garden for staff opens at St Richard's hospital
It's been gifted as a thank you for their work during the pandemic
A new 'Wellbeing Garden' for staff at St Richard's hospital has been officially opened.
The garden, worth over £200,000, was gifted to colleagues as a thank you for their work during the pandemic.
It was created by Chichester-based award-winning landscape and garden design studio, Andy Stedman Design.
Andy said: "This is a project very close to my heart, I was born at St Richard’s Hospital and visited A&E many times throughout my childhood following various rugby and skateboarding injuries. However, it wasn’t until 2019, when my wife and I found ourselves in the neonatal unit here with our daughter who was born eight weeks early, when we saw first-hand how hard all the staff worked and how caring they were.
“When we heard the garden needed transforming my staff took it on and within 48 hours had reached out to our network of suppliers, contractors and partners in our showroom to get involved for free. We all know the hospital does so much for thousands of local people and we had costed this project up very early on, which came to more than £200,000. We then managed the concept design all the way through to how it has developed today.”
Dame Marianne Griffiths marked the opening by commending colleagues at the Trust for their hard work and Andy Stedman and his team for their kindness and generosity. “The pandemic has been really tough for our communities and the patients we serve, but also for our staff, who have continued to go above and beyond throughout these extraordinary times to make sure patients receive the best care possible. Giving this wonderful wellbeing garden to them feels all the more poignant as we stand here today,” she said.
“Green spaces really have the power to de-stress people and it’s so positive for our staff to have access to this. We are truly humbled by everyone’s generosity. We’re so grateful and it will make such a difference to our staff” she added.