Great Ormond Street Hospital.html



The Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) is a medical institution specialising in the care of children. It was founded in London in 1852 as the Hospital for Sick Children, making it the first hospital providing in-patient beds specifically for children in the English-speaking world. Now an NHS hospital trust, GOSH still engages in pioneering work in children's medicine. It was the recipient of the rights to Peter Pan, or the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, given to the hospital by author J. M. Barrie, which have provided it with substantial financial support. The Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity (GOSHCC) provides additional funding for the hospital's activities.

Activities

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 Canada, 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.

In October 2008, the hospital was rated by the Healthcare Commission as "good" for quality of care (a reduction from "excellent" in 2007) and "good" for use of resources (an improvement from "fair" in 2007).

The Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Trust is a member of the UCL Partners academic health science partnership.

Redevelopment Plans

In 2002 Great Ormond Street commenced a redevelopment programme which is budgeted at £343 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.

Great Ormond Street plans to be a foundation trust in the near future.

Peter Pan copyright

In 1929 the hospital was the recipient of playwright J.M. Barrie's copyright to the Peter Pan works, with the provision that the income from this source not be disclosed. This gave the institution control of the rights to these works, and entitled it to royalties from any performance or publication of the play and derivative works. The hospital's trustees recently commissioned a sequel, Peter Pan in Scarlet, which has been a critical success.

When the copyright originally expired in 1987, 50 years after Barrie's death, the UK government granted the hospital a perpetual right to collect royalties on the work (but not creative control). The UK copyright was subsequently revived in full under an EU directive in 1996 when the term was standardised throughout the European Union to author's life plus 70 years, thus expiring at the end of 2007. GOSH claims that the play itself (but not the novel) remains under copyright protection in the US until 2023 (based on the publication date of the stage play, 17 years after the novel), although this has been disputed by various parties, including the Walt Disney Company¹ and Top Shelf Productions, both of which have published unauthorised derivative works in the United States.

Museum of Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children

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. The museum is a member of the London Museums of Health & Medicine.

Admission records from 1852 to 1914 have been made available online on the Small and Special website. ²

Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity

The hospital has relied on charitable support since it first opened. One of the main sources for this support is the Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity (GOSHCC). Whilst the NHS meets the day to day running costs of the hospital, the fundraising income allows Great Ormond Street Hospital to remain at the forefront of child healthcare³. GOSHCC is now trying to raise over £170 million to complete the next phase of redevelopment, as well as provide substantially more fundraising directly for research. The charity also purchases up-to-date equipment, and provides accommodation for families and staff⁴.

The money donated to the charity makes Great Ormond Street Hospital one of the most well-funded NHS trusts in the UK. Nevertheless the trust has not become an NHS Foundation Trust.

Jeans for Genes

Great Ormond Street is one of the four charities leading the national Jeans for Genes campaign where everyone across the UK wears their jeans and makes a donation to help children affected by genetic disorders. All Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity's proceeds go to its research partner, the UCL Institute of Child Health.

Charity Single

A Charity record by Boy George was released in 1987 to raise money for the hospital, it was called The Wishing Well and featured a lot of well known singers and celebrities, including Roland Rat.

External links

• The Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children and Institute of Child Health
  • Redevelopment page
• Joint Hospital and UCL Institute of Child Health website
• Jeans for Genes website
• Museum and archive
• Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity (GOSHCC)
• Small and Special - archive of admission records for The Hospital for Sick Children at Great Ormond Street 1852-1941
• Virtual tour of the MRI unit at Great Ormond Street Hospital

References