PPE sculpture honours Covid staff and patients

A sculpture made from recycled personal protective equipment (PPE) has been unveiled at a hospital to mark six years since the first Covid lockdown.

Artist Kurt Jackson designed The Nurse's Hands - a pair of cupped hands wearing surgical gloves - as a tribute to "those who care and those we lost" during the pandemic.

The piece now stands in the Critical Care Healing Garden at Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro.

Jackson used PPE that had been collected and recycled on site, after learning about the hospital's efforts to reuse materials. Dr Joe Parker, who works in intensive care, said using PPE to make the sculpture would "be heard and felt by everyone" at the hospital.

Of the pandemic, the artist said: "We kept hearing about the PPE, the problems with sourcing it and so on, and I've always thought, what is this PPE?"

Ten years ago Jackson created a series of drawings and paintings of patients being treated in the operating theatre.

He said: "A lot of my drawings ended up focusing on these skillful hands at work saving lives and patching people up and so I wanted to do something with the hands.

"I eventually came up with a sculpture of a pair of what I call The Nurse's Hands, in the original PPE colour, to represent all that time and care and dedication of the doctors and nurses who work here."

Dr Joe Parker, who works in intensive care, said the use of PPE would strongly resonate with staff.

He said: "The amount of time that was spent wearing PPE and the struggles that came with being in it for such a long time is really reflected in the piece.

"The nurses who cared for the patients one-to-one had to be in full gown, gloves, often a kind of hood and a mask in the early stages of Covid and they were in that for such a long period of time.

"I think it's something that we can really reflect on and see how much of a kind of role it played in everyone's lives, in and out of hospital."

The sculpture has joined the bird sculptures Jackson previously installed in the garden which was funded by the Royal Cornwall Hospitals Charity, with support from Robin Hanbury-Tenison, a veteran explorer who recovered from Covid, and his wife.

In the past, Jackson has given many artworks to units within the hospital, including the Cove Centre, the prostate cancer ward and Phoenix - the acute stroke ward.

Tamsyn Pattenden, the ward sister for Phoenix, met the artist and told him the difference his work made to staff and patients.

"Your vision of the sea brings comfort, hope and beauty to all that spend time here on Phoenix ward and your generosity and your creativity touch many hearts each day," she said.

"It's appreciated by lots of patients and staff already."

Jackson responded: "This hospital has been very important in my family for quite a few generations, with beginnings of lives and the ends of lives and so it means a lot to me to be able to contribute and to give a little back.

"I want to think of it as something that's moving, that makes you think of better places, better times.

"I just want my work to talk to people, to speak, to make them hopefully have some joy in their lives, hopefully think about other sides to life, just to lift the spirits a bit."

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