Great Ormond Street Hospital is home to one of the world’s greatest concentrations of paediatric expertise and treats children who suffer from rare, complex and often life threatening conditions. As one of only a handful of truly world-class children’s hospitals, patients are referred to Great Ormond Street Hospital from across the UK and all over the globe.
Each year the hospital receives more than 150,000 admissions and outpatient appointments. Patients range in age from premature babies to late teens. Around 50% of the children are under two years old and 30% require 24-hour intensive care.
The ongoing mission of Great Ormond Street Hospital is to improve the health of children by being a world-leading centre of excellence for specialist paediatric treatment, research and education.
- In 2007 Great Ormond Street Hospital was recognised by the Department of Health as the UK’s only paediatric Specialist Biomedical Research Centre, and has the largest range of children’s healthcare specialists in one institution in the country.
- Our special partnership with the Institute of Child Health offers the largest concentration of research into childhood illness outside the United States.
- Great Ormond Street is the largest training centre for paediatric nursing in Europe and shares expertise with clinicians in all major paediatric units, constantly striving to improve what we do and share what we learn with others, both nationally and internationally.
- The Children’s Hospitals International Executive Forum – a group of all the world’s leading children’s hospitals - recognises Great Ormond Street Hospital as one of the four leading paediatric research hospitals in the world.
- The Healthcare Commission independently assesses our services. In 2006/2007 the hospital was awarded ‘excellent’ for our care of children, the highest mark possible (only 4 per cent of NHS Trusts achieve this standard) and ‘excellent’ in clinical care, again, the highest mark possible (only 6 per cent of NHS Trusts achieve this standard).
- In the government’s last Research Assessment Exercise the Institute of Child Health was assessed at 5*A, the highest mark available with only four other clinical research organisations achieving the same.
Great Ormond Street Hospital operates at the frontiers of modern medicine. This is made possible by our partnership with the UCL Institute of Child Health (ICH). The institute provides the largest body of paediatric research in Europe, seeking new cures and treatments for the most vulnerable children.
Established in 1945, the Institute of Child Health forms part of University College London and is recognised as the leading British academic research institution for child health. The Institute publishes over 1000 papers each year across 7 key research themes, including cancer, with the specific aim of defining the scientific, epidemiological and clinical basis of childhood diseases in order to promote the health needs of children.
Among their many achievements, our researchers have devised mini-bone marrow transplants for children too sick to have a full transplant, pioneered the development of a hepatitis C vaccine and undertaken ground-breaking gene therapy trials for children with rare immunodeficiency conditions. New drugs have been developed for the treatment of epilepsy, arthritis and HIV, while new techniques for cardiac surgery have made procedures safer and more effective.
Thanks to our unique partnership, yesterday’s laboratory research is becoming today’s hospital practice, benefiting thousands of children who come to Great Ormond Street in desperate need of life-saving treatment.
Some treatments currently being offered in the hospital would not have been available even a few months ago, let alone a few years ago.
