Dr Leighton Phillips Director of Research, Innovation and University Partnerships for the NHS Wales, Honorary Professor Aberystwyth University, and director on the Hywel Dda University Health Board joins us to share how they are bringing in Biophilic Design into healthcare in South West Wales. Part of his role is about questioning what we want the future to look like.
Dr Phillips shares with us how fundamentally important the natural environment is, how it profoundly influences our health and wellbeing. What he finds captivating about Biophilic Design, is that there is an opportunity. “With over 1200 hospitals, and a million staff and nearly everyone in the UK having some interaction with the NHS services just imagine the health and planetary impact of the NHS embracing biophilic design.”
Hospitals historically have been designed with a particular modernist design approach, where it was thought that clinical settings which were white, were sterile. Of course, sterile environments are exceptionally important, but these environments do not put us at ease. We feel stressed in that setting and it doesn't aid recovery if we are talking about our hospitals.
Then if we consider that 90% of us interact more with primary care, the same can be true there. Leighton suggests that we can still maintain safe clean fantastic clinical environments while introducing colour, introducing fresh air, views of nature. We should not compromise all that we knew was good within that modernist period, but we can harness, within our current estates, the things that we know promote health and well-being and use every investment decision that we make as large organisations to do more of that, to support people and create environments that aid their recovery. Embracing the concept of Biophilic Design will drive this change.
The 10 year strategy with millions spent on healthcare infrastructure, which also sets out the future of healthcare, INCLUDES the aim to undertake activities promoting health and wellbeing. “We do more than provide services in hospitals and healthcare facilities.” It is important, he says, to “accept a wider role, in promoting health and wellbeing, and that the Biophilic approach and design is part of that.
A change is happening, look at the new Alder Hey Children's Hospital Trust in Liverpool, or the new Velindre Cancer Centre Wales.
Change happens within organisations because people want it and understand it. Of course you need high level ownership, but it filters down through the tiers of the organisation. To make a real shift you need 100s of people taking this on board, taking it into their personal day to day responsibility.
“Show people the positive impact biophilic design has. There is a pool of people out there who know the powerful impact that the natural world has on us. Within the Trusts or organisations, keep it real and applicable, ask them what environment they would like to work in, what are the restrictions, argue the case for change, they will have the answers.
Also, think about every investment decision as an opportunity, try and remember that you are working in systems that are under a lot of pressure, where creating space to think about how that environment can change in the future is difficult. Think how can Biophilic Design can be part of hundreds of discussions. Recognise every opportunity. Every investment decision is an opportunity. Think about the value that Biophilic Design delivers within healthcare, and all aspects of life.”
Regarding procurement, how do we value longer term investment, and battle all those tensions within a financially constrained organisation, there are tough discussions, and the supply chain has a duty of care as well, not to just peddle the same chairs, but to offer other options. We all need to be working together.
To find out more about the projects Leighton is involved in visit hduhb.nhs.wales/
To buy a copy of the Healthcare issue that Leighton has written about this action learning programme he and his team have been running in the NHS West Wales, visit this link for the Ebook version journalofbiophilicdesign.com/shop/journal-of-biophilic-design-issue-3-healthcare-hospitals
or this one for the printed version journalofbiophilicdesign.com/shop/journal-biophilic-design-healthcare-design-magazine
If you like this, please subscribe!
Please register for our newsletter on our website journalofbiophilicdesign.com/podcasts-journal-of-biophilic-design
Credits: with thanks to George Harvey Audio Production for the calming biophilic soundscape that backs all our podcasts.
Did you know our podcast is also on Audible, Amazon Music, Spotify, iTunes, & all the RSS feeds?
Facebook journalofbiophilicdesign/
Twitter JofBiophilicDsn
LinkedIn. www.linkedin.com/company/journalofbiophilicdesign/
Instagram journalofbiophilicdesign
11 янв 2024
