About the day
Date: Friday 5 June 2026
Location: West Middlesex University Hospital
This one-day event will bring together designers, arts and health programme leaders, estates teams, creative practitioners and researchers working to increase access to nature and green spaces in hospital settings. It will showcase pioneering work from across the NHS and beyond, exploring how natural environments and biophilic design can enhance patient care, improve staff wellbeing and strengthen hospital communities.
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Keynote speakers
Dr Ashby Lavelle Sachs, Research Fellow in Horticulture, and Victoria Shearing, Wellbeing Garden Programme Manager, both from the Royal Horticultural Society, will present the science and practice behind the newly launched RHS Wellbeing Gardens Blueprint.
Dan Loveard, Green Space for Health Project Manager at the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare, will showcase the NHS Forest Healthy by Nature programme, which embeds Nature Recovery Rangers across nine NHS Trusts to integrate nature into patient care, staff wellbeing and community engagement.Â
Dr Lewis Elliot, Senior Lecturer in Environment and Human Health at the European Centre for Environment and Human Health, will examine how we can best evidence the impact of greenspace interventions for health, offering practical, efficient guidance for their evaluation even when resources are scarce.
Katie Tait, CEO of Horatio’s Garden, will challenge the terminology of ‘garden therapy’, and explore how precise language helps recognise – and properly value – the transformative impact of Horatio’s Garden as a critical part of spinal injury rehabilitation across all biopsychosocial parameters.Â
Also included in the programme are two showcase sessions, each featuring three shorter presentations on areas of innovation and best practice. The first will focus on the design and integration of nature and biophilic design in hospitals, and the second explores participation and nature engagement for hospital communities. Presenters will include designers, clinicians and project leaders representing work across a wide range of hospital settings.
The day will be chaired by renowned landscape designer Jinny Blom, who has created therapeutic gardens for CW+ including the award-winning Sky Garden at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, where she is also an Artist in Residence.