A PAINTING celebrating NHS workers through Covid and based on famous work by Michelangelo has gone on display in Royal Bournemouth Hospital. 

Patients and visitors to RBH are able to view a painting of NHS workers in the main café area, based on Michelangelo’s famous The Creation of Adam in the Sistine Chapel. 

Depicting NHS nurses and doctors reaching out to a Covid patient in bed on a ventilator, the artwork was donated by Danny Byrne. 

Speaking of his work, Mr Byrne said the painting serves as a thank you to the nurses, healthcare assistants, doctors and ancillary staff who worked during the lockdown. 

He added: “It was also a thank you for my new knee and having his tonsils removed when I was eight. 

Read more: Bid for exclusive celebrity artworks in aid of Christchurch hospice

“Which brings the point that we are all touched by the NHS at some point and emphasises how much we rely on these heroes throughout our lives.” 

Ringwood-based Danny is well known for his portraits, which have been exhibited by the Royal Academy and the Royal Portrait Society. 

In 2021, he raised money for the Macmillan Unit, based in the grounds of Christchurch Hospital, with his work which transformed signatures and doodles by stars into mini canvases.