The UK-First Critical Care Roof Garden Opens at King's Trust
A pioneering outdoor critical care garden has opened on the roof of King's College Hospital, marking a medical first for the UK.
Funded primarily by King’s College Hospital Charity, the facility will transform the environment for critically ill patients, allowing them to experience the therapeutic benefits of fresh air, greenery and natural light while receiving full medical support.
Enhancing patient recovery and wellbeing
Offering access to fresh air, sunlight and greenery in a calming space can open new paths to recovery for critically ill patients. Being in nature can help reduce symptoms such as hallucinations and delirium – a sudden, acute state of confusion and altered mental state that often occurs in hospital patients and can be triggered by illness, infection or trauma.
Patients often report that their first experience of being outdoors marks a turning point in their recovery and can help accelerate patient recovery times. Being in nature also has a positive impact on emotional wellbeing, offering a calming contrast to the noisy, enclosed environment of a critical care unit. It can lift spirits, increase motivation for rehabilitation and improve morale and quality of life, which is especially important for patients who have been in hospital for extended periods, often months at a time.
As with patients, the families of patients will benefit as the roof garden offers a quiet and peaceful space for them to spend precious time with their loved ones. This environment is especially important during difficult moments and for those receiving end of life care.
Innovative infrastructure and medical scaling
The new roof garden is pioneering in its design, infrastructure and capacity to operate at scale, supporting patients from the 60-bed critical care unit located directly below it.
The space can accommodate up to six hospital beds at any given time. To ensure patient safety, each bed position is situated close to a specially designed, weatherproof medical cabinet. These units house essential data, power and medical gases such as oxygen, ensuring that patients can enjoy being outdoors without being disconnected from vital life-support systems.
By helping improve recovery and shorten hospital stays, the garden can have a positive impact for patients and families while reducing treatment costs across the NHS. The project has already generated strong interest from other NHS trusts and hospital charities looking to take their lead from King’s and replicate this innovative model in other parts of the UK.
Advancing future clinical research
The Critical Care team at King’s College Hospital will use the new garden to conduct research into how exposure to fresh air, greenery and sunlight reduces stress, lowers blood pressure and improves the wellbeing of patients, families and the staff who care for them.
Acquiring data on these benefits will inform future care for critically ill patients and ensure a holistic approach to supporting their needs.
Collaborative funding and design
King’s College Hospital Charity helped make the new roof garden a reality by contributing £2m (US$2.69m) in donations to its development, with additional funding provided by King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. Contributing to major projects like this is one of the ways the charity helps to improve the patient experience through innovative approaches to care.
Iona Joy, Director of Grants and Insight at King’s College Hospital Charity, says: “We’re delighted to have funded this visionary project, which is about more than medical excellence. It’s about dignity, humanity and the healing power of nature.
“We’re transforming intensive care into compassionate care – where medicine, technological innovation and empathy work together to save and rebuild lives.”
The garden was designed through a collaboration between globally renowned landscape architect Nigel Dunnett – Professor of Planting Design, Urban Horticulture and Vegetation Technology at the University of Sheffield – and British garden designer Sarah Price, a three-time RHS Chelsea Flower Show gold medallist. Professor Dunnett died shortly before the roof garden opened.
