A STUNNING mural celebrating the staff of Inverclyde Royal has been completed following almost a year of hard work by a local artist.

Painter Jim Strachan, who comes from Greenock and now lives in Gourock, took on the project after NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde approached local creative charity RIG Arts with an idea to brighten up the main staff entrance.

Initially the project was planned to happen over five weeks, but after getting his teeth into it Jim knew he wanted to do create something more ambitious including as many people as possible.

He spent 10 and a half months putting it together.

Jim said: "With the level of interest from staff I could have filled three more walls if I was able to - I ended up having a waiting list of people who wanted to be involved and I tried to include everyone.

“I have loved working on this piece and had a great experience with the hospital staff, I cannot speak highly enough of everyone at the IRH and the work that they do.

“I fell in love with the place and with the staff at the hospital.

"Seeing them every day and hearing their stories about working during Covid was so important for the mural and I wanted to reflect the incredible work of the people at the IRH.”

Jim's masterpiece has a garden theme, which shows no fewer than 78 staff members and volunteers from the hospital working to look after plants which represent hospital patients.

The mural also features a number of iconic local landmarks as well as neon areas to represent the 24-hours a day life of our hospital, with the piece also capturing the pandemic .

Jim said: “The mural starts with local people out with pots and pans clapping for carers and showing appreciation for the NHS.

"I then included cruise liners for Greenock as a sign of a better tomorrow after Covid.

“I wanted to make the rest of it centred on staff.

"I decided to make it a big garden, which showed all of the staff doing their jobs, but patients are represented by flowers and everyone is looking after the garden.

"Some of my inspiration for the neon section came from a Saturday night when I was working and a crash team were called to help someone.

"They came running past me and I can’t describe the care and humanity I witnessed.

"I have never seen anything like that.

"It shows the integrity of this hospital and the staff, all they cared about was helping someone who needed them.

“I have also included the hospitality, catering, domestic teams and the charities who do so much work for the hospital.

“I wanted to show people who work at the hospital and tell their stories.

"What started as a dull hallway has now been transformed into an area bursting with colour and stories."

Now the mural will be officially unveiled at the IRH early next year and become a permanent feature.

Louise Watson, hospital site lead for Inverclyde Royal Hospital, said: “We are so pleased with the mural, I still can’t quite believe this is the same corridor.

"On behalf of all of the staff I would like to say thank you to Jim, and RIG Arts for helping to make this possible.

"I'd also like to thank the League of Hospital Friends for their help with funding this project and for their ongoing support.

“The idea was to brighten up the staff corridor and show everyone how appreciative we are of their hard work.

"We really wanted to give back to the staff, while capturing the Greenock area and what the place means to people.

"There has always been such a sense of community around Inverclyde and we really wanted to highlight that - I think Jim has captured it perfectly.”