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Great Ormond Street Hospital

Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) is a medical institution specialising in the care of children. It was founded in London in 1852 as the Hospital for Sick Children, making it the first hospital providing in-patient beds specifically for children in the English-speaking world. Now an NHS hospital trust, GOSH still engages in pioneering work in children's medicine. It was the recipient of the rights to Peter Pan, or the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, given to the hospital by author J. M. Barrie in 1929, which have provided it with a source of income, now part of the fundraising activities of Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity (GOSHCC) which provides the hospital with additional funding for its redevelopment, research and new equipment.

Activities

The hospital works with the UCL Institute for Child Health, its medical school, and is the largest centre for research into childhood illness outside the United States and Canada, and a major international trainer of doctors and nurses. It has the widest range of children's specialists of any UK hospital, and is the largest centre for children's heart or brain surgery, or children with cancer, in the UK. Recent high profile breakthroughs include successful gene therapy for immune diseases, following a decade of research.

Peter Pan copyright

In 1929 the hospital was the recipient of playwright J. M. Barrie's copyright to the Peter Pan works, with the provision that the income from this source not be disclosed. This gave the institution control of the rights to these works, and entitled it to royalties from any performance or publication of the play and derivative works. The hospital's trustees commissioned a sequel, Peter Pan in Scarlet, which was published in 2006 and has been a critical success.

When the copyright originally expired at the end of 1987, 50 years after Barrie's death, the UK government granted the hospital a perpetual right to collect royalties on the work (but not creative control). The UK copyright was subsequently extended through 2007 by a European Union directive in 1996 standardising terms throughout the EU to the author's life plus 70 years. GOSH has been in legal disputes in the United States, where the copyright term is based on date of publication, putting the 1911 novel in the public domain while the 1928 version of the play is still under copyright there. but now acknowledges that they do not have a copyright on the novel, so works based on it do not require their permission or royalties.

Museum

Great Ormond Street Hospital's museum and archive is open by appointment only. It covers the history and personalities connected with the hospital since its inception in 1852. The Peter Pan Gallery houses editions of the book from all over the world, in many languages. The museum is a member of the London Museums of Health & Medicine.

Admission records from 1852 to 1914 have been made available online on the Small and Special website.

Children's Charity

The hospital has relied on charitable support since it first opened. One of the main sources for this support is Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity (GOSHCC). Whilst the NHS meets the day to day running costs of the hospital, the fundraising income allows Great Ormond Street Hospital to remain at the forefront of child healthcare. GOSHCC is now trying to raise over £170 million to complete the next phase of redevelopment, as well as provide substantially more fundraising directly for research. The charity also purchases up-to-date equipment, and provides accommodation for families and staff.

• Official Site: Great Ormond Street Hospital

• Wikipedia: Great Ormond Street Hospital