A landmark primary care building in Somerset has launched an innovative new wellbeing garden – with a helping hand from a national healthcare building specialist.
Frome Medical Centre in Somerset has created the outdoor space to give its team a place to unwind and relax in on a break from their busy working day, but the garden will also help the practice to reduce both food and cardboard waste.
The pilot area includes hot composters that we funded, which break down material more quickly to create more compost in a shorter time. The composters themselves are made from wood which was due to be kindling, giving it a new lease of life.
Karen Creffield, Practice and PCN Manager, said: “The staff wellbeing garden has been such a great initiative for us. We are passionate about supporting health and wellbeing and we know how much research there is to support the health benefits of gardening. The space we have created has an outdoor seating area and is a great venue for staff to relax and take a break from their busy day.
“We are incredibly grateful to Assura for their support in funding the hot composters for us. This means we can now close the loop on our food waste and a lot of our cardboard and create our own compost. We have placed the hot composters in a place which is clearly visible to our patients and visitors and are looking forward to creating some education resources to encourage others to start closing the loop.”
Gareth Hannam, Digital, Data and Technology Manager for the practice, said: “We’re delighted to have these composters installed. Not only will it help us be more sustainable but the wellbeing garden itself will have a big impact on the mental wellbeing of our staff. I am an avid gardener myself and there are so many benefits to your mental health and this really is just the start of what we want to do with the garden. We have a lot of plans to help improve the biodiversity around the medical centre itself which this will enable us to do.”
The practice held a sustainability event on Friday, March 4 to celebrate the sustainability work they have been doing which members of our team attended, along with Professor Martin Marshall, Chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners.
Karen Nolan, our Social Impact Lead, said: “There is so much happening in Frome around community development and social prescribing - it’s a fantastic example of what can be achieved on a very local scale when people work together. They have some really innovative GPs that have a really embraced social prescribing, there is a willingness in the community to work together which makes it the perfect landscape for grassroots community development and we’re just delighted to have been able to help this project to take root!”