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.

The theme had to be welcoming, calming, and give an ‘outside-in’ feeling as the window looks out over a car park. It also had to be wipe-able and deter little people from trying to escape through the fire door!

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.

Stirling Community Hospital provides a wide range of outpatient services and also has a number of inpatient wards and a Minor Injuries Unit.  Almost £1m pounds was recently  spent to create a new ‘hub’ for children and young people’s services and Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) transferred there from premises in Randolph Road.

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.

Gillian Morton, NHS Forth Valley’s General Manager for Women, Children’s and Sexual Health Services, said: “The investment in facilities for children and young people attending Stirling Community Hospital has been positively received by parents, patients and staff and I’m confident the fresh, modern, new artwork in the waiting area will also prove popular.”