Northumbria Health & Wellbeing Centre

Improving Staff Health + Wellbeing

Our NHS staff work tirelessly and passionately to provide outstanding healthcare across the UK. However, it is important that NHS staff are physically and mentally healthy for them to be at their best. Due to this, staff well-being is increasingly becoming a priority within the NHS who are launching initiatives to help improve this.

Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust are actively working towards this goal and decided to create a dedicated space for staff separate from the clinical setting. Northumbria Health & Wellbeing Centre would help provide staff with a relaxing area for meetings and training sessions and a break away from the ever-busy hospital environment.

The trust required furniture that would encourage collaboration and interaction between staff and provide a more informal space for work. It was also important that the furniture provided would suitably fit every room’s specific purpose such as clinical training, non-confidential patient calls and hot desk areas.

Key Project Criteria

• Support the Trust in creating a dedicated space for staff to help improve their well-being.
• Provide a comfortable, relaxing, and attractive space to encourage staff to use the new facilities.
• Supply furniture for a variety of spaces within the building specific to their distinct functions and requirements.

How Did We Help?

“Create a dedicated space for staff to help improve their wellbeing.”

• Bright colours: Incorporated warm colours, creating an environment for staff to feel settled as soon as they walk in.
• Interaction: Meeting pods help encourage collaboration between staff, aiming to make meetings more engaging and fostering a “community” feel.
• Change of scenery: Creating a dedicated space for staff away from the hospital environment helps improve their well-being.

“Supply furniture for a variety of spaces within the building specific to their distinct functions and requirements.”

• Clinical training: Multi-purpose desks specifically designed to accommodate both ICT and non-ICT use in the building’s IT rooms. These desks also allow shared resources on screens, making them perfect for clinical training.
• Hot desk areas: Ideal for hot desk areas, these desks also helped accommodate obstructing pillars throughout, helping maximise the use of the space.
• Breakout & informal meetings: Reserved and comfortable nooks with soft furniture to relax and have informal meetings.

“Provide a comfortable, relaxing, and attractive space to encourage staff to use the new facilities.”

• Familiarity: Furniture provided in the well-being centre is similar in to the furniture provided previously to the hospital library. TOP-TEC products are easy-to-use, encouraging staff to use them without any complications.
• Open plan design: Our furniture was arranged to make best use of available space to create an open air and uncluttered environment, urging staff to use facilities and making it easier to move around within facility.

The Result

The Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust is delighted with how well the space is being received. The collaborative Focus Pods have become so popular that the Trust has had to make them bookable pods only to manage the high demand.

This building has become a dedicated space that staff use for training, hot desking, collaborative meetings and breaks. We have also received amazing feedback from staff who are grateful to have a welcoming and comfortable atmosphere away from the hospital.

Download the full PDF case study here.