Travelling to GOSH from outside London

Children and young people come to Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) from all over the UK so may have to travel for many hours to get here. We realise that this can be disruptive for family life so we can offer somewhere to stay the night before a day or inpatient admission.

This is in the Patient Hotel in Weston House on Great Ormond Street (opposite the main hospital site).

Staying here means that families can come to London the day before, have a good night’s sleep and then cross the road to the main hospital in time for their child’s admission. We give priority to families who live outside the M25.

If Weston House if fully booked, we will make sure you have somewhere to stay in the local area – we will tell you this when you check in at reception.

There are five floors of rooms in the Patient Hotel, in a mixture of twin and triple rooms, all of which are en suite. We can provide cots for babies and also a small fridge if your child’s medication needs cold storage. Bed linen and towels are provided for each room. Wi-Fi within Weston House is free – details are in the room folder.

Each room sleeps a maximum of two adults and one child. We cannot offer somewhere to stay for anyone else unless there is a specific need for them, for instance, if your child has a full-time carer in addition to their parents.

There is lift access to all floors within Weston House. There are 17 accessible rooms with adaptations to the bathroom. There are two hoists available – let us know when you check in if your child needs one.

Each floor has a communal room, containing a fridge, cooker, microwave and kettle. All cooking equipment, crockery and cutlery is provided – please use the dishwasher provided to keep this area tidy.

In most circumstances, you will be offered room in the Patient Hotel for the night before admission only. When your child becomes an inpatient, you will need to stay by their bedside on the ward if possible or elsewhere in our accommodation.

If your child is in one of our intensive care or high dependency units, we will offer accommodation to both parents. If your child is on one of the other wards, we can add the name of the other parent to a waiting list so we can offer them somewhere to stay if anywhere is free.

The Patient Hotel can only be booked by a member of staff on the ward where your child is being admitted. As soon as you receive your admission letter, please contact the ward to book you into the Patient Hotel if needed. If there is no room in the Patient Hotel, we will find you somewhere else to stay elsewhere.

If you need to cancel your Patient Hotel booking, for instance if your child’s admission is postponed due to sickness, please tell ward staff by telephoning the number on your admission letter.

We will ask you for a refundable deposit of £20 against the room and the television remote control. You should pay these in cash when you check in to the Patient Hotel. We will return the deposits to you when you check out if there has been no damage to the room and the remote control is returned. There are no other charges for you to stay.

There is someone on the reception desk 24-hours a day – contact them if you have any questions or queries.

You can also contact the Patient Hotel directly on 020 7829 7977

While the Patient Hotel is mainly for families coming from outside London for a day or inpatient admission, we may be able to help with outpatient appointments too.

Priority is given to families from outside London so we cannot guarantee it will be available. If the Patient Hotel is fully booked, we will try to find you somewhere else to stay in the local area.

The Patient Hotel is for children and young people who need treatment or assessment on a regular basis but don’t need to stay on a ward, for instance, if they are having dialysis, rehabilitation or chemotherapy.

Please ask a member of ward staff if you live too far away from GOSH to attend daily.

There are flats within the Patient Hotel which are usually booked for children and young people who have recently had a transplant so need daily follow up appointments and infectious patients who need to be isolated. This is booked as part of the discharge process after transplant.