Green ways to health at Ayr & Ailsa Hospitals
University Hospital Ayr provides the main A&E service for South Ayrshire, with units specialising in Vascular Surgery, Ophthalmology and Audiology. Ailsa Hospital provides residential and out-patient mental health services, with a woodwork shop and garden offering occupational therapy. A nursery next to the main hospital provides day care for children up to the age of five.
The project commissioned a landscape architect to review the site and assess features such as the historic landscaping around the old buildings, as well as the potential for viewpoints and landmarks. Consultations and workshops with health professionals and estates staff looked at what they would like to see in the grounds and how new features could be maintained. The result was a masterplan to create a better environment for people and wildlife, improve existing paths and introduce new ones, provide seating and meeting places, and encourage people to use the grounds more.
Reaction to the project was very positive, even while construction was still taking place and the new paths offer opportunities for a real work out as well as gentle exercise.
The green exercise partnership is a joint venture between Forestry Commission Scotland, Scottish Natural Heritage and Health Scotland (the health improvement board of the National Health Service in Scotland). The Partnership aims to build links between the health and environment sectors, following growing evidence that public health can be improved by getting people engaged with the natural environment.
Through its Greening the NHS Estate programme, the Partnership aims to establish at least one project in each of the eleven mainland Area Health Boards. The projects aim to show the health benefits that flow from positive investment in and management of the NHS estate – the greenspace around hospitals and healthcare centres.