Brian Eno among team working on A&E redesign

The Chelsea and Westminster Health Charity has launched an appeal to raise £600,000 so that the designs can be realised.

Eno, the former Roxy Music star, is also known for creating ambient soundscapes and has been brought together with a team that includes Universal Everything’s Matt Pyke, media artist Mischa Kuball, set designer Steffi Mueller and Richard Woods, who is known for his colorful environmental installations.

The A&E department, which is ranked as having the shortest waiting times in the country, is responding to a predicted rise in patient numbers.

The space was originally designed to take 60,000 patients each year and now sees 112,000 patients annually.

A £10 million redevelopment plan is in place, which will double the A&E footprint and enable the department to treat 140,000 emergency patients each year.

The hospital’s charitable arm says it is looking for the design team to ‘create an environment and a service which minimises stress, improves clinical outcomes and sets new standards for the delivery of emergency care’.

Culture minister Ed Vaizey, who launched the appeal at the House of Commons, says, ‘This is wonderful cause that highlights what we already know, that arts and culture have a huge impact on both our physical and mental health.

‘This project will fundamentally improve the experience of A&E for thousands of patients, using the talent of our leading artists to provide a calm and positive environment. I hope this collaborative work to improve health and wellbeing through the arts can continue in other areas too.’

Consultancy Pearson Lloyd recently led a redesign project aimed at cutting violence and aggression in hospital A&E departments, as part of an iniative run by the Design Council and the Department for Health. Research shows that the Pearson Lloyd project has cut incidents of violence and aggression in A&E departments by half.