KINDHEARTED staff at Colchester General Hospital are using the natural goodness of fresh air to aid patients’ recovery.

Patients on the critical care unit, who are well enough into their recovery, are wheeled outside to the hospital lake in their beds by nurses to enjoy the great outdoors.

One patient to benefit is Stuart Edwards, 62, of Colchester, who was on the unit for 33 days after being diagnosed with Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare and serious condition which affects the nerves.

He said: “It was one of the consultants who suggested I was well enough to go outside if the weather was right and I jumped at the chance.

“During my time in critical care, I went out to the lake on a few occasions and it was brilliant to feel the sun on my face.

“I would spend about half-an-hour outside with staff – it was something I really looked forward to and it helped to break up the day.

“I was limited in what I could do on the unit so to get outside into the fresh air was a real tonic.”

Sister Karen Baxter from the critical care unit said it had been the unit’s practice to encourage patients who are well enough to get some fresh air in the warmer months.

“Patients in critical care have been very sick and can spend long periods of time within the four walls of the unit,” she said.

“It’s easy to see why patients lose track of time and what’s going on in the world.

“Being able to get out into the fresh air helps patients realise they are getting better and there is a life beyond the unit.

“Staff enjoy seeing the ducks as they come and go to the hospital and we believe taking our patients out to see the ducks really helps cheer them up.”

Mrs Baxter said Colchester General Hospital was fortunate to have a picturesque lake located within its grounds. She estimated patients from the critical care unit are taken outside approximately 15 times a year and on each occasion they are escorted by at least two members of staff.

Mr Edwards, who worked at BT before he retired, is now back home after spending a total of nine weeks in hospital – at Colchester General Hospital and Clacton Hospital.

He is expected to make a full recovery.