In this edition:
In this episode, we explore a radical reimagining of the Intensive Care Unit: King’s Critical Care Roof Garden - a space where patient rooms draw their palette from the neighbouring Ruskin Park, where natural motifs soften the edges of medical technology, and where even life‑support equipment is thoughtfully integrated into a calming visual language. But the innovation doesn’t stop at bringing the outside in. This team has taken the bold step of taking the inside out - enabling life‑support care to take place in a roof garden, beneath open sky.
It’s a space designed not only for treatment, but for orientation, grounding, and emotional restoration. ICU stays can be profoundly disorienting, often marked by delirium, anxiety, and a sense of time slipping away. Families, too, navigate fear in environments that rarely feel humane. This new approach asks a transformative question: What if the environment itself could help people heal?
We’ll hear from a former patient who spent 51 days in a more traditional ICU ward and one of the clinicians who cared for them. We’ll explore how this reimagined ICU may reduce delirium, support wellbeing for patients and NHS staff, and offer families a place that feels less like a machine‑filled room and more like a space of hope.
Guests
Dr Tom Lee – Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing and author of a memoir, novel, and short‑story collection. In 2012, the same year he was shortlisted for the prestigious EFG Private Bank Sunday Times Short Story Award, Tom’s life was upended by a profound, life‑altering event - one he opens up about with rare honesty, in this episode.
Dr Phil Hopkins – Honorary Clinical Academic at King’s College London and Consultant in Intensive Care Medicine at King’s College Hospital. Phil was part of the team who cared for Tom for 51 days. Here, he shares the vision, imagination, and human spirit behind the King’s Critical Care Roof Garden - and what this extraordinary space offers to every person who steps into it.
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