Great Ormond Street Hospital praised in mental health report

Great Ormond Street Hospital’s (GOSH) mental health services team has been praised in a new report looking at inpatient mental health wards during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Inpatient Mental Health Wards During Covid-19 report, published by the Children’s Commissioner, gives an overview of how these services coped during the first wave of the pandemic.

GOSH was praised in the report for its “innovative response” assisting neighbouring trusts in the North Central London region to free up space in adult hospitals for Covid-19 patients.

Lee Hudson, Head of Mental Health Services at GOSH, said: “During the first wave of the pandemic, GOSH worked with our North Central London partners to provide a home for general paediatric admissions from all across North Central London, and a vital part providing admissions was for children and young people with mental health crises.

“I’m really proud of how GOSH and our NCL partners worked together to provide this service quickly and safely for a really vulnerable group of children and young people, many of whom were really struggling during the lockdown.”

Matron John Forrester, one of the nursing leads at GOSH's mental health services during the first wave: said:

"Turnaround times and outcomes were equal to or above national standards, meaning that a very effective mental health provision was born out of a crisis."

The report also looks at how mental health wards were directly affected by Covid-19 cases among patients and staff, how patients coped when visitor rules were changed and how they adapted to using technology to keep in touch with parents and other family members.

Some of the notable challenges faced for mental health wards during the early stages of the pandemic were the access to education for patients and the children and young people staying on wards being unable to have trips away from hospital like they usually would.

You can read the report in full here.