The Royal Orthopaedic Hospital, Birmingham specialisies in joint and bone problems. It joined the NHS Forest in 2009 during the project’s pilot phase, and planted additional trees in 2012 and 2014.
The hospital is currently rebuilding the outpatient’s centre and has funding for the landscaping of the site. There are already a number of protected trees, an atrium (housing a family of ducks) and landscaped gardens on site. Much of the land is leased from the Bourneville Village Trust) and the hospital is keen to continue tree planting over the next few years. The site has a community liaison officer and around 220 volunteers with a gardening group carrying out much of the maintenance on site. The community engagement team have also been working at involving, through volunteer work, hard to reach groups, such as young people, and developing links to local schools.
Birmingham Orthopaedic Hospital organised children at a nearby primary school to carry out acorn collecting on 5 October 2009. It was a highly successful event with local children taking away acorns to plant at their school. The following year it is hoped that there will be a number of saplings to put into the ground at the hospital. The hospital won a Green Apple Award in 2011 for their engagement work with local schools.
In February 2012, 12 mature trees and 200 hornbeam and beech whips were planted to create hedgerows on site.
In March 2014, two trees were planted as part of the NHS Forest’s two at 2 o’clock campaign on NHS Sustainability Day.
