QEH creating a more therapeutic environment for patients

The Queen Elizabeth Hospital is seeking to create a more patient friendly, therapeutic environment of care and the Gallery of Caribbean Art is aiding the health care institution, in its quest to do so.

Just yesterday, Juliette Bynoe-Sutherland, Executive Chairman of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH), accepted a donation of about 70 pieces of art from Hazel-Ann Mahy-Batson, Director of the Gallery of Caribbean Art. Bynoe-Sutherland noted that these pieces, just like the 20 or so pieces previously donated from the Gallery, will be used not only at the QEH, but also at the island’s Harrison Point Isolation Centre.

“I want to really thank the Gallery of Caribbean Art for your initiative. I want to say to you, that these paintings are not just at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, they are also at Harrison’s Point in our isolation centres and we have gotten wonderful feedback from those centres, so we are really utilising them in spaces throughout the hospital, to really beautify and basically create a therapeutic space,” Bynoe-Sutherland remarked, during the presentation ceremony held in the QEH’s boardroom.

“Part of our strategic intention is to transform the hospital, not just transform the patient experience by the traditional areas you hear about, but transform it from the inside out, by how we beautify it, how we create environments that are therapeutic for people to heal, how we create settings that staff can take a moment from their very hectic, stressful schedules to appreciate art,” she said.

“One may not recognise the importance of art, but we can tell you, we that appreciate art, art is important and has been scientifically proven to bring benefits to people in a health care setting,” she stressed, noting that both staff and patients can reflect on the art and thereby take a mental break and find the solace they may need for a few moments.

Lisa Greenidge of the Bed Management Unit, whose idea it was to bring the art to the wards at the QEH, noted that art pieces have already been placed in some of the private wards at the QEH and all 40 wards will eventually be covered.

Hazel-Ann Mahy-Batson, Director of the Gallery of Caribbean Art meanwhile placed the value of the pieces donated yesterday at around $28 000, whilst she noted that the pieces donated prior stand at a value of around $10 000. Moved by Greenidge’s request for art pieces to place in the QEH, Mahy-Batson noted that the artists affiliated with the Gallery were more than willing to contribute and made it all positive for the initiative to be successful.