GOSH, what an imposing record in looking after very ill children
Our occasional PPU Focus series featuring leading private patient services within the NHS this month explores Great Ormond Street Hospital International and Private Care. Philip Housden reports.
The entrance to London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital creates a colourful welcome to patients
Great Ormond Street Hospital’s (GOSH’s) dedicated International and Private Care service (I&PC) caters for UK self-pay and insured patients plus international patients from over 90 countries.
Treating over 5,000 patients every year, GOSH ensures a nurturing and family-centred experience across 75 private beds within three dedicated wards and specialist wards including intensive care units. It also has a dedicated outpatient department.
Private patient revenues at the trust have bounced back since Covid. The trust ranks third in England for both overall private revenues and percentage of trust income.
In 2022-23 the trust reported private patient income of £54.8m, up £24.9m (220%) on 2021-22. However, this is still some way short of the £64.8m achieved pre-pandemic when private patient earnings represented over 14% of total trust income.
An equivalent for last year would be private patient income of in excess of £78m a year (see diagram below).
Being part of the NHS means that private patients also benefit directly from the trust’s infrastructure, research and education, as well as the multi-disciplinary approach to treatment and care. These include up to 30 professionals: consultants, specialist nurses, radiologists, pathologists, allied health professionals and support services.
The ability to access the latest medical advancements, technologies and cutting-edge techniques means all patients receive the best possible treatment delivering excellent patient outcomes.
The private patient service includes dedicated referral, appointment, finance, interpreter and hospitality teams in London and an overseas referral office in the United Arab Emirates.
Leader in education
GOSH is a leader in educating paediatric specialist doctors, with the largest programme in Europe, and also offers Europe’s largest paediatric nurse education program.
It is committed to sharing best practice and knowledge with clinicians in the UK and around the world via its virtual learning environment, providing access to the same education and training as staff at GOSH.
Education is an enabler and, through its multi-year international partnerships in Africa, Europe and the Middle East, has been able to develop services, clinically support and provide education, training and consultancy to improve local specialist services in haematology, oncology, bone and marrow transplants, cardiac and intensive care.
This is supplemented through observerships, multi-year international fellowships and bespoke virtual clinical training webinar sessions.
Research prowess
In 2022-23 alone, there were over 900 active research studies with more than 2,200 participants at GOSH.
Research, in large part through the partnership with Univeristy College London Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health (UCL GOS ICH), represents the largest concentration of paediatric research expertise in Europe. GOSH and UCL GOS ICH form a powerful research partnership that is only getting more impactful.
Medical research produced as a result of the partnership is cited three times more than the global average, according to a recent analysis.
Chris Rockenbach
This enables GOSH, working with its partners, to rapidly and robustly improve paediatric outcomes with cutting-edge treatments and therapies.
Chris Rockenbach, GOSH’s managing director of international and commercial, said: ‘Great Ormond Street Hospital has been delivering world-leading paediatric care, research and education for over 170 years.
‘The International and Private Care service remains committed to meeting the needs of the patients we treat and through delivery of ambitious plans, we will be able to treat more children and make a positive impact on more lives.
‘These children are our future, and therefore it is important they are our sole focus providing confirmation of our motto “The child first and always”.’
Philip Housden (right) is director of Housden Group commercial healthcare consultancy