Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Trust (GOSH) is a national centre of excellence in the provision of specialist children's health care, currently delivering the widest range of specialist care of any children's hospital in the UK. It is the only specialist Biomedical Research Centre for paediatrics, the largest centre in the UK for children with heart or brain problems, and the largest centre in Europe for children with cancer. It works in partnership with the UCL Institute of Child Health (ICH), part of University College London, and together they form the largest paediatric research and teaching centre in the UK.

Although the hospital provides national services, it has made a significant step in contributing to the improvement of the health of local children by partnering with North Middlesex University Hospital (NMUH) and Haringey Teaching Primary Care Trust.

The hospital at Great Ormond Street is the only exclusively specialist children's hospital in the UK. It does not have an Accident and Emergency department and only accepts specialist referrals from other hospitals and community services. The population of children served by the hospital is characterised by those with multiple disabilities and/or health problems and rare and congenital (present at birth) conditions. Many children need the help of different specialist teams. Improvements in health care and diagnosis mean that many children have dramatically improved survival rates and more therapeutic options than was the case 10 years ago. Sadly though, many of the children cared for at GOSH still have life-threatening or life-limiting conditions.

Please visit Great Ormond Street's website at www.gosh.org.