GO Create! A review and preview

17 Jun 2016, 3:32 p.m.

GO Create! at Great Ormond Street Hospital

GO Create! The Arts and Humanities Programme at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) has had an exciting 2015/16. Some of our highlights includeTripling our participatory provision, and engaging over 240 participants a week in art, music and storytelling workshops.

Unveiling Precious, by artist Chris Wood; Precious, is exhibited in the main entrance to the hospital and recognises and celebrates the precious gift of life given by children and their families through organ donation, both at GOSH and elsewhere.

And, the Breathe Magic evaluation of our Outpatient workshops; through which 92% of parents told us that the GO Create! activities improve the family experience of being in hospital and 95% of staff felt the activities improve their work environment.

We are very excited to announce that our programme will continue to grow in 2016/17; we are especially looking forward to:

Hosting the third annual Family Arts Week with the Activity Centre and School in October, this year it will be bigger and more exciting than ever.

Providing opportunities for patients to do their Arts Award and through doing so gain accreditation for participating in the arts!

And, working with an exciting range of artists to develop new permanent artworks that will capture the imagination of our patients, families and staff!

The Go Create programme allows us to have the benefit of calming music in the Outpatients department… children often join in the music and the music has a positive impact on everyone in the area, parents and relatives. Zoe Wilks, Lead Nurse Neurosciences and Outpatients

For more information on the GO Create! arts programme and to find out how to get involved visit gosh.nhs.uk/gocreate

follow us on Twitter @gocreateGOSHor email gocreate@gosh.nhs.uk

Joint GOSH and UCLH service named as a Tessa Jowell Centre of Excellence for Children

After a detailed review process across the UK, the Tessa Jowell Brain Cancer Mission has announced that our joint GOSH/UCLH service has been designated as a Centre of Excellence.

New treatment for brain tumour approved after over 20 years of research

The first-ever targeted treatment for brain tumours in children has been approved for NHS patients, following decades of research by a Great Ormond Street consultant.

Kidney swap for GOSH patient who’s spent over 3,600 hours on dialysis

A five-year-old patient, who has spent almost 10% of her childhood on dialysis, has successfully had a transplant thanks to a kidney-swap scheme.

New cheek swab test helping to monitor children with rare heart condition

A cheap and simple test, being developed with funding from the British Heart Foundation (BHF), will allow quick and safe monitoring in children with arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathies (ACM).