Green light at planning committee for Great Ormond Street Hospital’s redevelopment plans

The new clinical building, on Great Ormond Street itself,  will be dedicated to caring for children and young people from across the UK and beyond with rare and difficult-to-treat cancers.

The need for the new centre is pressing: last year 1,200 children visited GOSH to have specialist treatment for cancer (bone marrow transplant, haematology and oncology), instances of cancer continue to increase, and childhood cancer remains the leading cause of death in children aged 1-14 years old. 

Matthew Shaw, Chief Executive of Great Ormond Street Hospital, said: “We are delighted that Camden Council’s planning committee resolved to grant planning permission for our plans for our new Children’s Cancer Centre.

“This is an important step towards more children and young people being able to receive care and treatment in the best possible environment. This new centre will put us in a strong position to build on the decades of work undertaken by our clinicians and the  researchers from our academic partner ICH to deliver the very best, kindest and effective treatments for cancer.”

The existing cancer facilities were built many years ago and do not reflect modern healthcare. At times this is challenging with some cancer clinics in buildings from the 1930s and services are scattered across the hospital campus. The new Children’s Cancer Centre will mean children are treated together, in a bespoke environment, designed to meet their needs, with a focus on play and physical and educational activities alongside medical treatment.

Our co-location with ICH and other research partners allows us to get new cancer treatments to patients rapidly, and we intend for our new facilities to allow us to expand this ground-breaking work.

The new centre will include cancer wards, cancer day care, new theatres and intensive care units meaning the specialist teams needed for our patients can all work more closely together. The building will also house new imaging equipment and a specialised chemotherapy pharmacy will also be created to ensure we keep pace with world leading cancer care practice. Alongside the clinical services, the new building gives us the opportunity to create a new entrance for the hospital and to create a new school for the children who come to GOSH.

We will now work with Camden Council and the Greater London Authority to secure full planning permission and the Decision Notice can be issued.  The deconstruction and construction programme will take around three years to complete. We will continue to work with our local community as we progress our plans to ensure disruption is as limited as possible.