ALMOST £600,000 was spent on art to enhance Bristol hospitals in a two-year-period.

Health trusts in the area also paid almost £80,000 on arts consultants to advise them about the way they use art in hospitals during 2008-09 and 2009-10, according to figures obtained by the Evening Post.

About £145,000 has been put aside by hospitals in north Bristol and the city centre to fund art projects this year.

Almost half of the money due to be spent on art in the coming year will be paid for out of North Bristol NHS Trust's (NBT) budget.

The health trust, which runs Frenchay and Southmead hospitals, plans to spend £92,542 this financial year, with £69,000 coming from the taxpayer.

University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust (UHBristol), which runs Bristol Royal Infirmary will spend £54,325 on art projects this year for the children's hospital and oncology centre but it will all be paid out of charitable funds.

As previously reported in the Evening Post, North Bristol NHS Trust has been criticised for plans to spend £1.4 million on art at the new Southmead Hospital, with the bulk coming from NHS budgets.

Spending from NHS budgets has to be approved by a trust board, which consists of hospital directors and members of the public.

Managers have explained that the artwork will enhance the new buildings for patients and visitors, making stays in hospital more pleasant and aiding recuperation.

In 2008-09, £76,611 was spent by NBT on artwork and £118,498 was spent last year.

NBT also makes money from the art that is displayed in its hospitals, taking a 20-per-cent commission from the sale of art exhibited at its sites.

Last year £1,013 was contributed to arts funding from sales within the hospital and a similar amount is expected next year.

Artwork was funded using £61,184 of charitable funds last year, specifically donated for artwork.

Anaesthetist Dr Fiona McVey has worked at Southmead Hospital since 1994 and believes art helps patients to feel relaxed.

She said: "As a practising clinician, an appropriately pleasant environment improves my interaction with patients and relatives. "Conversely, it is harder to be reassuring to patients when discussing details of their forthcoming anaesthetic in a dingy, unwelcoming place. Appropriate art can humanise a space that may otherwise feel unfamiliar, clinical or intimidating."

The trust that runs the BRI and children's hospital has spent more than £380,000 on art since 2008 and £36,621 on arts consultants.

Even the £20,000 salary for an arts co-ordinator came out of charitable funds.

Arts projects were an important part of the Bristol Heart Institute (BHI) behind the Bristol Royal Infirmary, which opened last May.

UHBristol spent about £200,000 on the project, which includes a glass lifeboat sculpture that hangs in the atrium and works on the ceilings of the lifts used for transporting patients in beds, but every penny was raised by the hospital charity Above and Beyond.

Above and Beyond Charities chief executive Sarah Talbot-Williams said: "We are absolutely above and beyond what the NHS provides. It is about working with hospitals and working out what are the added extras that can provide a positive healing environment.

"The NHS is stretched, they cannot do the added extras.

"We had a tremendous response for the Heart of Bristol appeal and the Care appeal."

Cardiac services matron at the BHI, Graham Brant, was involved in the planning of the building since before it began and has seen the difference the environment has made first hand.

He said: "From our point of view, if you didn't have the artwork the BHI would be very white and very clinical.

"Things like the lifeboat are not only beautiful pieces of art but also act as a signpost to help people find their way around the building.

"I think patients feel they are in a bright, clean 21st-century environment. From a staff point of view, the art increases morale."

Kingswood MP and member of the health select committee, Chris Skidmore, believes taxpayers' money should not be used for artwork in hospital.

He said: "At times of economic difficulty we need to be looking hard at how we spend that money. It should be spent first and foremost on funding key services for patients themselves have better quality healthcare, that does not mean spending money on art."