Providing a beautiful garden and rehabilitation room for critical care patients  

The whole concept was developed after former patient Andrew Heveran, who was critically ill in the Intensive Care Unit, became desperate to see the outside world. The space needed to be private, so that he didn’t feel completely overlooked, yet there was nowhere that anyone could think of to take him. Kate Tantam, Critical Care Specialist Rehabilitation Sister, took on the challenge.

‘Our patients and their loved ones tell us that being in critical care is like a bomb going off in your life, that everything is blown apart. Our job as a multi-professional team is to support them in rebuilding their lives.

‘Part of supporting people with their recovery journey after critical care is getting to know them as individuals and exploring with them what they most want out of their future. For many it is simply time with loved ones, time to restore relationships and play with children and grandchildren in non-clinical environments. It was the desire to support this that the ideas for the Secret Garden at University Hospitals Plymouth was born.’

Kate approached Plymouth Hospitals Charity, University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust’s official charity, for a grant which we were extremely happy to support, and with the Trust match funding the Charity’s contribution, and £50k from NHS Charities Together towards the garden the project was completed in 2022.

With space for beds and wheelchairs, walking frames and sticks and a self-binding gravel surface which is slip resistant, and anti-glare, it’s perfect for critically ill patients to touch plants, to feel the sun and experience this woodland-like environment. As the garden has chance to mature it will flourish into the special healing space that brings a little touch of nature back to people who have been surrounded by a clinical environment and remind them of the world outside.