Who we are

Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) is an international centre of excellence in child healthcare.

Together with our research partner, the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, we host the UK’s only paediatric National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre (BRC).

Since its formation in 1852, the hospital has been dedicated to children’s healthcare and to finding new and better ways to treat childhood illnesses.

Great Ormond Street Hospital receives 242,694 outpatient visits and 42,112 inpatient visits every year (figures from 2021/22). Most of the children we care for are referred from other hospitals throughout the UK and overseas. There are over 60 different clinical specialties at GOSH; the UK's widest range of specialist health services for children on one site. More than half of our patients are referred to us from outside London and a small proportion come from overseas. GOSH is the largest paediatric centre in the UK for:

• paediatric intensive care
• cardiac surgery - we are one of the largest heart transplant centres for children in the world
• neurosurgery - we carry out about 60 per cent of all UK operations for children with epilepsy
• paediatric cancer services including bone marrow transplants – with University College London Hospitals (UCLH), we are one of the largest centres in Europe for children with cancer
• nephrology and renal transplants
• children treated from overseas in our International and Private Care (I&PC) wing

At GOSH we connect multi–disciplinary teams of healthcare professionals and scientists to improve the lives of children with rare or complex diseases. Our dedicated staff are often researchers themselves and we have more than 500 active research projects underway at any one time. Through carrying out research with local, national and international partners, especially our primary research partner, the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health (UCL GOS ICH), GOSH has developed a number of new clinical treatments and techniques that are used across the NHS and around the world.

We host the The UK’s only National Institute for Health and Care Research funded Biomedical Research Centre (NIHR GOSH BRC) that solely focuses on child health - a collaboration between GOSH and UCL GOS ICH, and we are also home to the NIHR GOSH Clinical Research Facility, which provides specialist day care accommodation for children and young people taking part in clinical research studies.

The GOSH Data Research, Innovation and Virtual Environments unit (GOSH DRIVE) was highlighted as a best example of how a hospital’s data infrastructure has the potential to improve healthcare, in a 2019 UK Government–commissioned independent report (Topol Review).

We are a member of University College London (UCL) Partners, joining UCL with a number of other hospitals – an alliance for world-class research benefitting patients.

In partnership with six other NHS trusts, we are the lead provider for North Thames Genomics Medicine Centre.

Take a look at our Research and Innovation pages for more information.

Staff education and training influences every stage of the patient journey. Together with our partners we play a leading role in training paediatric nurses, doctors and other health professionals.

Through the GOSH Learning Academy, we deliver a range of training and education opportunities to equip staff and students with the up-to-date knowledge, skills, and capabilities to provide our patients with exceptional care.

Education programmes available through the GOSH Learning Academy include:

• Postgraduate Medical Education
• Nurse education
• Clinical simulation
• Apprenticeships
• Resuscitation services
• International education opportunities

Find out more about our Education and training offering.

Our mission is to put the ‘child first and always’. This describes why we exist and has been the same since our inception in 1852.

To help us shape our future we asked patients, families, staff and partners what they think of GOSH: what we do well, what we could improve and what we should do more of

Our 2020-2025 strategy is the result of this advice and will help us concentrate on things which make the most difference to our children and young people, families and staff.

To turn our vision into a reality we have set ourselves six ambitious programmes of work to deliver better, safer and kinder care and save and improve more lives:

• We want GOSH to be an incredible place to work, so we’ll invest more in the wellbeing, education and development of our fantastic staff.
• By putting the patient at the centre of our thinking, we will deliver a Future Hospital programme which will transform outdated pathways and processes.
• We’ll improve and speed up access to urgent care and stay one step ahead by developing virtual technology so care can be accessed both in and out of the hospital.
• We’ll develop the GOSH Learning Academy to help staff learn and thrive as they care for our patients.
• When conducting research into rare and complex conditions, we’ll involve everyone to help speed up the development of new treatments and cures.
• And to help care for children with rare and hard to treat cancers, we’ll build a new Children’s Cancer Centre, a space with state-of-the-art facilities.

Find out more about our 2020-2025 Above and Beyond strategy.

Our 'Always Values' are to be:

• ‘always welcoming’,
• ‘always helpful’,
• ‘always expert’
• and ‘always one team’

These are the guiding principles for everything we do and will assist us in delivering our ambition. They define what our patients, their families and our partners expect of us and what we should expect of each other. They were developed in collaboration with the families we care for.

Read about the history of GOSH and; learn more about who we are.

You can also visit the publications section to read our latest annual report.