Great Ormond Street Hospital

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.

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Redevelopment Plans

In 2002 Great Ormond Street commenced a redevelopment program 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.

Peter Pan copyright

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 1987, 50 years after Barrie's death, the UK government granted the hospital a perpetual right to collect royalties on the work. The UK copyright was subsequently revived under EU Legislation in 1996 when the term was standardised throughout the European Union to author's life + 70 years. Peter Pan remains under copyright in the European Union until 31 December 2007. The play itself (but not the novel) remains in copyright in the US until 2023.

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.

Admission records from 1852 to 1914 have been made available online on the Small and Special website. ^[1]

GOSHCC

The hospital has relied on charitable support since it first opened. One of the sources for this support is the Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity (GOSHCC), which was set up to help meet the costs that the NHS can't.^[2] 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 staff.^[3]

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.

OTA

The Orthodontic Technicians Association was first established following meetings at Great Ormond Street Hospital in the early 1970s. The aim of the organisation was to encourage the study, promote the highest standards of practice and advance the knowledge of orthodontic laboratory and clinical techniques for the benefit of the orthodontic team and patient. The association continues to advise institutions and individuals on the use of all orthodontic laboratory techniques and the service that is provided by orthodontic technicians.

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