Great Ormond Street Hospital
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Location | |
|---|---|
| Place | Bloomsbury London, England, (UK) |
| Organisation | |
| Care System | Public NHS |
| Hospital Type | Teaching |
| Affiliated Med.Sch. | UCL Institute of Child Health is its medical school. |
| Services | |
| Emergency Dept. | Yes, runs children's A+E at North Middlesex Hospital |
| Beds | 350 |
| Speciality | Children's hospital |
| History | |
| Founded | 1852 |
| Links | |
| Website | Homepage |
| See also | Hospitals in England |
The Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children (GOSH) was founded in London in 1852. There are a few institutions which pre-date it as providing care for children, although not in-patient beds. Great Ormond Street Hospital is thought to be the first hospital providing in-patient beds specifically for children in the English-speaking world. The first purpose built children's hospital building was the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital in 1873, beating GOSH by two years. Now an NHS Hospital Trust, Great Ormond Street Hospital is still world-renowned for its pioneering work in children's medicine. Due to its ground-breaking work over many years, it is amongst the most famous hospitals in the United Kingdom.
The hospital works with the UCL Institute for Child Health, its medical school, and is the largest centre for research into childhood illness outside the United States, and a major international trainer of doctors and nurses. It has the widest range of children's specialists of any UK hospital, and is the largest centre for children's heart or brain surgery, or children with cancer, in the UK. Recent high profile breakthroughs include successful gene therapy for immune diseases, following a decade of research.
The hospital was recently rated as excellent in its care of children (one of only a handful of trusts to achieve this) and also received an excellent rating from the Healthcare Commission, which only a dozen Trusts achieved.
The hospital was the recipient of playwright J.M. Barrie's copyright to Peter Pan, giving the institution control of the rights to the work, and entitling it to royalties from any performance or publication of the play and derivative works. The hospital's trustees recently authorised a sequel, Peter Pan in Scarlet, which has been a critical success.
When the copyright originally expired in 1988, 51 years after Barrie's death, the UK government granted the hospital a perpetual right to collect royalties on the work. Peter Pan remains under copyright in the European Union until 31 December 2007. The status of the copyright in the United States is disputed.
There are still clinical wards in a 1937 building which is cramped, inefficient and uncomfortable. In 2002 Great Ormond Street commenced a redevelopment program which is budgeted at £312 million and the next phase of which is scheduled to be complete by 2012. The redevelopment is needed to expand capacity, deliver treatment in a more comfortable and modern way, and to reduce unnecessary inpatient admissions.
[edit] Museum and archive
Great Ormond Street's museum and archive is open by appointment. It covers the history and personalities connected with the hospital since its inception in 1852. The Peter Pan Gallery houses editions of the book from all over the world, in many languages.
