NursingNetUK

Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust (GOSH) is a national centre of excellence in the provision of specialist children's health care, currently delivering the widest range of specialist care of any children's hospital in the UK. It is the only specialist Biomedical Research Centre for paediatrics, the largest centre in the UK for children and young people with heart or brain problems, and the largest centre in Europe for children and young people with cancer. It works in partnership with the UCL Institute of Child Health (ICH), part of University College London, and together they form the largest paediatric research and teaching centre in the UK.

The hospital at Great Ormond Street is the only exclusively specialist children's hospital in the UK. It does not have an Accident and Emergency department and only accepts specialist referrals from other hospitals and community services. The population of children and young people served by the hospital is characterised by those with multiple disabilities and/or health problems and rare and congenital (present at birth) conditions. Many children and young people need the help of different specialist teams. Improvements in health care and diagnosis mean that many children and young people have dramatically improved survival rates and more therapeutic options than was the case 10 years ago. Sadly though, many of the children cared for at GOSH still have life threatening or life-limiting conditions. 

The hospital receives over 255,000 patient visits (inpatient admissions or outpatient appointments) a year, and carries our approximately 18,800 operations each year.

The hospital has 383 patient beds, including 44 intensive care beds (21 CICU, 15 PICU and 8 NICU). Many of the children and young people on our wards require high dependency care or are classed as ward intensive care, requiring one-to-one nursing.

Around 4,200 full-time and part-time staff work at the hospital. The ICH has around 600 staff. Many senior staff have roles in both organisations.

The hospital has approximately 50 paediatric specialties, the widest range of any hospital in the UK, which uniquely enables it to diagnose and pioneer treatments for children and young people with highly complex, rare or multiple conditions. It has 19 highly specialised national services.