Caring for People, Caring for the Planet

Queens Road Medical Practice  |  Together for Good  |  Great Big Green Week 2026

Every June, Great Big Green Week brings together communities across the UK to take action for climate and nature. This year’s theme is ‘Together for Good’ — and here at Queens Road, that phrase feels personal. The things we are most proud of are not things we did on our own. They are things we built with neighbours, students, local charities, and our patients. This week we wanted to share some of them with you.

Because we think that looking after people and looking after this island are, at heart, the same job.

Together for Good: Our Herb Garden

The wooden planters and bench in our medicinal herb and sensory garden are the result of a remarkable collaboration. The planters were made by prisoners at HM Prison Guernsey, supported by CLIP — the Caring for Life in Prison charity, which runs woodworking and other vocational programmes to support rehabilitation. The herbs were grown and planted by students from Ladies’ College. The herb garden planters live at the front of our practice. Many thanks to Ladies College, Clip ad the prison.

Clean Air, Better Health

Three Lower Sixth students at the Ladies’ College investigated local NO2 levels as part of a joint project with QRMP and found that concentrations exceed WHO recommended limits during morning and evening rush hours, with road transport the primary source. They turned their findings into a patient presentation now playing on our waiting room screens, and we have briefed our clinical team so that patients with asthma, COPD, and cardiovascular disease receive tailored air quality advice at their routine reviews where appropriate.

Social Prescribing: Health Beyond the Consulting Room

Health is shaped by far more than what happens in a clinical setting. Loneliness, lack of green space, financial stress, and disconnection from community are all powerful drivers of poor health — and no prescription can fully address them. That is why we have been strong advocates for the Bailiwick Social Prescribing (BSP) programme, and why we sit on the Bailiwick Social Prescribing Steering Group.

Through BSP, patients can be connected to community activities, green spaces, arts groups, volunteering opportunities, and much more — all of which support wellbeing in ways that complement clinical care.

If you feel that social prescribing might help you — or someone you care for — please speak to your GP. A Social Prescribing Link Worker can help identify community activities, peer support, and local services that could make a real difference to your day-to-day life.

Together in the Field: Volunteering with La Société Guernesiaise

This Saturday, a group of QRMP staff put the ‘Together for Good’ theme into direct action — pulling on boots and heading out to volunteer with La Société Guernesiaise for a morning of conservation work at Le Jardin du Lorette.

La Société Guernesiaise has been caring for the island’s natural and cultural heritage since 1882. Le Jardin du Lorette is one of their conservation sites, and Saturday’s session involved clearing land to help restore and protect the habitat there. It was hands-on, muddy, and thoroughly good fun.

For us, this is what ‘Together for Good’ really means: healthcare workers stepping outside the surgery and into the community, connecting with the island’s environment and with an organisation that has been protecting it for generations. Time in nature supports mental and physical health. Volunteering builds connection and purpose. And a healthier natural environment is good for all of us. The links between community, nature, and health are not abstract — they are lived, every time we get outside and do something good together.

Together for Good  —  Great Big Green Week, 6–14 June 2026

This week we are marking Great Big Green Week with a staff bring-and-share plant-based or healthy lunch and the publication of this blog. We are part of the national Great Big Green Week map — one small Guernsey practice connected to a movement happening right across the UK.

Thank you for being part of it. If anything in this blog has sparked an idea or a question, please do come and talk to us.