‘They remind me there’s a life after cancer’: how paintings in NHS hospitals help patients feel better

Feedback on the benefits of displaying pictures on wards, now gathered in a new book, is backed by scientific studies

Art, of course, brings pleasure. Now there is evidence that paintings can also help alleviate medical conditions, as well as boosting NHS staff.

A new book produced by the charity Paintings in Hospitals (PiH), which has a collection of 3,500 works and prints, including by Andy Warhol, Maggi Hambling and Bridget Riley, in medical settings across the UK, contains feedback from dozens of patients and medical staff about the invaluable" benefits of seeing the art. Hospitals, health centres, surgeries and hospices can borrow the charity's paintings to put on display, usually for two or three years.