Although many hospital patients and employees find the presence of beautiful trees on the grounds of a hospital to be quite pleasant, there are instances in which removing a tree is in the best interests of everyone who uses this facility. Below are two such instances.

The birds who periodically nest in a particular tree are disturbing the sleeping patients with their 'dawn chorus'

If there is a tree planted close to the windows of the hospital's patient wards, any birds who nest in this tree could end up disrupting the sleep of the sick people who are trying to recuperate in these wards. The 'dawn chorus' which many bird species perform during certain periods of the year can be particularly loud and may make it impossible for those who are close-by to the source of this birdsong to sleep. This could be more than just mildly annoying for the ill patients who have to listen to it. Sleep deprivation during their stay at the hospital may affect their recovery time and increase the chances of some of them experiencing poor health outcomes.

As such, although some people might enjoy listening to birdsong, the responsible thing for the hospital's management team to do in this situation would be to have a team of arborists remove this the tree. Provided there are other trees relatively nearby where the birds can nest in the future, and the tree removal team wait until the nests in the tree are no longer in use before they get to work, this action should not negatively impact the local bird population and should have a positive impact on the patients who are in the wards by this tree.

The tree's exposed roots are encroaching onto the hospital's footpaths

If a tree's exposed roots have begun to spread and are now encroaching upon the hospital's footpaths, then the removal of that tree by an arborist business might be the best course of action. The reason for this is as follows; whilst any able-bodied person could easily step over some tree roots on a path, people who use crutches or wheelchairs might struggle to use a footpath which features these raised and gnarled natural structures. The presence of a tree root might, for example, prevent a person from swinging their crutch forward or might damage the wheels on a person's wheelchair (or even throw their chair off balance).

Given that many people who visit hospitals use these mobility devices, a tree that is causing this particular problem should probably be felled and any parts of its root system which have infiltrated the footpath should be extracted.

For more information on tree removal on hospital grounds, reach out to a tree service near you. 

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