Children and young people attending a waiting area at Stirling Community Hospital will now find themselves surrounded by ‘nature’ as part of an arts project designed to help them relax whilst waiting to be seen.

The new artwork showing leaves, trees and branches, aims to ‘bring the outside in’ and was created by artists Sharon Quigley and Lindsay Perth. The ideas for the designs were developed by the artists through workshops with Stirling Young Carers groups and discussions with staff and young patients who use the space.

Some of the illustrations echo the designs in the children’s ward and outpatients area at Forth Valley Royal Hospital, and a local businessman, who has a long association with the Stirling Hospital and who has supported improvements for patients young and old through the Friends charity since its Infirmary days, has generously donated the entire cost of the project.

The waiting room make-over forms part of a new ‘hub’ for children and young people’s services which has been developed at the hospital. The hub project, which took nearly a year to complete, involved a total refurbishment of outpatient area 3 and improved facilities for a number of services including physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech and language therapy and paediatric consulting.