Following last week's fire, Great Ormond Street Hospital can confirm all services are running normally.
The
fire investigation continues. There is extensive damage to level 5,
Cardiac Wing, and minor damage to levels 3 and 4: all clinical functions
have been rehoused elsewhere.
Assessment of the damage is at
early stages but we can confirm that we anticipate costs of repair will
be met through our insurance arrangements. A guesstimate cost based on
early assessment is around one million pounds.
Chief Executive Dr Jane Collins said:
“The
good news is that we will be able to get the Cardiac Wing to how it
was. However, the building has been a problem for us since it first
opened. It doesn't meet the needs of children and families or provide
the best environment for our highly skilled cardiac staff.
“As
the largest centre for children with heart problems in the UK, we
urgently need to secure funds for a new Heart and Lung Centre, as part
of our new redevelopment. The hospital has a fundraising target of
£170 m to complete Phase 2. This will allow us to treat more children,
to provide modern standards of comfort, privacy and support for parents,
and develop new family centred ways of working.
“Unfortunately,
although we might hope that the insurers might pay for new and improved
facilities, the hard reality is they of course cannot. We need to rely
on charitable donations to do this.
“In these hard times, everyone
is looking at costs: we certainly are. And yet sick children do not
stop getting sick because of the economic difficulties. We anticipate
demand for our services will rise and we need facilities to handle
this.”
Ends
Contact information:
Hayley Dodman, Great Ormond Street Hsopital press office, 020 7239 3126
Email: dodmah@gosh.nhs.uk
For genuine and urgent out of hours call speak to switchboard on 020 7405 9200
