In the last edition of Member Matters we asked forparents of patients to put themselves forward to workwith the me and others on the Transformation board as part of GOSH 2010. I was thrilled to get such anoverwhelming response.

GOSH 2010 is aiming to reduce waiting times, harmand waste. I felt it was important to have people whoare familiar with our services as well as having relatedprofessional experience to join the team.

We had a marvellous response from members and found roles for most of those who wereinterviewed, either on the Board or one of theTransformation projects.

Two people have joined the main Transformation Board and others have become part of the projectgroups which we explain below.

Medicine Management Project and Infections Project This brings together two significantareas of work. The Medicine Management strand willuse the expertise of the Nursing, Pharmacy and PatientSafety Teams to reduce medicine errors. The Infectionsproject will be aiming to eliminate all line infections aswell as cases of pneumonia when a child is on aventilator and infections caught on hospital premises,by 2010.

Advanced Access to outpatients Using varioustechniques already used elsewhere, this group islooking at how to match supply (the number of clinics

put on), with demand (the number of patients whoneed them). We are exploring the possibilities of other health professionals seeing patients whereappropriate, or working differently, for example givingadvice over the phone. As many of our patients areseen by more than one medical team we are askingthese teams to co-ordinate their work, so children don’tneed to come for multiple appointments on differentdays. This will need closer working between clinicaland administrative staff.

Transforming care on your ward Bringing togetherthe ward teams, patients and their families, this projectaims to ensure that direct benefits to patient care aremade from the Transformation process. It will do this by strengthening the authority of ward sisters andcharge nurses to be ‘in charge’ of transforming care in their own ward or department.

Safety walkrounds After the success of recruitingmembers for our Patient Environment Action Team(PEAT) we are delighted to continue using parents to inspect the hospitals with one of the Executive Team, including myself, looking for hidden or unseen risks. We also hope that parents will be joining theTransformation Co-ordinating Group as well as advisingand mentoring the Transformation Team Analysts.

As members take up their roles we will provide the wider membership with feedback on this and on the Transformation work in general. We hope some of the parents will be willing to write about their experiences.

Having parents at the centre of the Transformationprocess means that we continue to put the child firstand always to improve all areas of our work.

Foundation Trust

Member Matters

Dr Jane Collins, chief executive

Having a child at Great Ormond Street Hospital canmean that normal routines such as meal times can go straight out the window. Parents can often findthemselves in need of a hot meal when the canteen is closed.

With this in mind the Catering Department has started to sell a range of microwaveable meals from the CostaCoffee shop that can be heated there or in parents’ areas on the wards.

Angela Sandwith, food services manager, invitedmembers and staff to try the exotic range of meals in the café in March. Members, Helen Lyus and ClareBrailsford (also a parent of a patient) sampled the taster menu. Their favourite was the jerk chicken and Clare said that the new menu is “a lovely service to be able to offer parents”.

Claire is also joining our new Peter Pan Users Groupalong with another member, Ian Lush. This group willlook at improving the menu of the Peter Pan Café andmaking the food healthier whilst ensuring it is affordable.

Angela Sandwith said: “We are constantly looking atways to improve food for everyone who uses the hospitalbe they patients, family or staff. Like everyone else in thehospital we have budget constraints which mean wecannot supply hot meals 24 hours a day, which is whywe are making the microwaveable meals available.

However, the new group will help us explore how we can improve our menus while making them affordable to all that use the hospital.”

The group had its first meeting on 16 May which was designated Fruity Friday by the World CancerResearch Fund.

A change of menu

Foundation Trust members recently came together with the Friends Membership Scheme, run by GreatOrmond Street Hospital Children’s Charity, to discusshow to make the charity more effective in themessages it sends out to potential donors.

At the moment, for every 20 pence the charity spendsit raises £1 to be used on improving the hospital. This is seen as a good return in the charity sector.However, we want to see if we can improve this.

The charity asked the Foundation Trust membershipoffice to get in touch with members who are interestedin fundraising. A market research company contactedthose members who had expressed an interest andalso wanted to be part of focus groups. We askedthese people a few questions over the phone and theninvited those who were able, to visit the charity offices

to take part in a series of groups which discussedlevels of involvement with the charity and how theypreferred to be contacted.

The groups were split into parents, teenagers andchildren in order to get a clear idea about what kind ofrelationship each group wants to have with the charity.

Exercises like these will ensure that the charityremains effective and continues to raise the moneyneeded to develop Great Ormond Street Hospital and improve the services we offer to sick children and their families.

Setting charity targets

Helen and Clare sample the taster menu

Many Foundation Trust members are experts in childhealth issues. More than half of you are parents ofchildren who have been treated at Great OrmondStreet Hospital, and as 89 per cent of our patientsare referred from other hospitals, and on average,each of them is being seen by four different medicalteams, parents have a great wealth of knowledgeabout children in the healthcare system.

With this kind of knowledge and experience, ourmembers have become a resource not just for thehospital but for paediatric healthcare in general.

The UCL Institute of Child Health (ICH), worksalongside GOSH and ensures we are at the cuttingedge of paediatric research. The ICH has numerouscommittees and we have recently successfullyrecruited members to two of these bodies: theResearch Adoptions Committee and the ResearchGovernance Advisory Sub-committee.

The Research Adoptions Committee aims to reviewand approve research proposals that will usepatients from GOSH and resources from the newResearch Biomedical Facility, to ensure the publiccan have confidence in, and benefit from, qualityresearch undertaken jointly by ICH and GOSH. Thiscommittee was looking for two lay members.

The Research Governance Advisory Sub-committeeis made up of nurses, clinicians, academics andmembers of the public. Its purpose is to make surethat the research that is carried out is of the highestquality, especially in matters concerning a child’ssafety and comfort. We appointed one member to this committee.

Dr Tracy Assari, research governance co-ordinator,at the ICH, was very pleased with the response frommembers for these posts. “An email went out askingfor help and within 24 hours we had more thanenough responses to fill all the places. There are

some very interested parties out there who want tohelp in lots of ways.”

Members were also asked to help the National Co-ordinating Centre for Health TechnologyAssessment (NCCHTA) which is based at theUniversity of Southampton. This is rather like UCL Institute of Child Health’s Research AdoptionsCommittee only on a national level. It works onbehalf of the NHS deciding which possible research proposals to fund.

In the early stages of the process a short summary,sometimes called a ‘vignette’, is produced which ischecked by members of the public to see if researchis viable and how it may be improved.

The research subjects that Great Ormond StreetHospital members were asked to comment on wererelated to child health procedures, varying from thebest way to obtain urine samples to check forinfection in the under twos, to the use of quinolonedrops versus systemic antibiotics for grommetassociated ear discharge.

The final piece of research they wanted to checkwas concerning trials of filling or not filling cariousprimary teeth. The researcher had great problemstrying to find someone to check this proposal but as no doubt many of you are aware Great OrmondStreet Hospital has a maxillo-dental department and we were able to find someone to test thisproposal as well.

So Great Ormond Street Hospital members are not only driving forward the hospital’s services, but also having an input into the future of paediatric care across the country. Thank you for your continued support.

Members influence spreads

Making sure that the information we give to patients and their families is of a high quality and given at the right time is recognised as an important issue at Great Ormond Street Hospital. As a result, we have launched a survey to find out what you really think of our publications.

Beki Moult, health information and language manager,has launched the questionnaire with the aim of findingout what you think about the way we inform peopleabout our services. Families of children using ourservices in particular, are asked to complete the survey, but everyone’s views are welcome.

The questionnaire, which only takes a few minutes to complete, asks various questions about ourpublications including everything from information about medical tests, to keeping healthy, from updates on wards, to benefit and welfare advice.

The questionnaire also asks about the Great Ormond Street Hospital website and how useful the information on it is.

So if you would like to give your opinion about thepublications produced by the hospital, then visit ourwebsite www.gosh.nhs.uk and click on the children and families page; go to ‘What Information Do YouNeed’ on the right hand-side of the page and this will take you straight to the questionnaire. If you do not have access to a computer then contact Beki by phoning 020 7813 8558 and she will send you a printed version. All responses will remaincompletely confidential.

The responses we receive will help us ensure that the information we produce in future is as tailored to families’ needs as possible.

Get the right info

Parents and public members came together for the firstmeeting of the Members Forum in June.

The forum is made up of 20 Foundation Trust members;young people, parents and the public and will meetevery other month to discuss ways in which they canhelp develop hospital services from a user perspective.

Taking up from where the old Public Patient InvolvementForum, PPIF, left off the forum is going to discuss arange of issues from bedside entertainment tostrengthening Claudia’s List and Omar’s List.

Those who joined the forum include people with aprofessional interest in health as well as long-standingcharity supporters. There were also parents and otherrelatives as well as a few patients (current and former),although none of the young people were able to makethe first meeting due to ‘A’ Levels.

The meeting proved very lively with everyone making a contribution and members showed a real willingnessto do what they could to help the hospital.

The decision to start the forum was taken after thegovernment changed the format of statutory publicengagement within all hospitals. The old PPIFs closed down in March and are being replaced by localinvolvement networks or LINks. But as Great Ormond

Street now has more than 4,500 Foundation Trustmembers and as we are not yet authorised andtherefore can’t hold elections for a members’ council, a forum seemed the easiest way to ensure that we were engaging with people who either support us or use our services.

The membership office wrote to the members interested in standing for election and asked if theywere interested in being put forward for the forum. As a result we had twice as many applicants as we had places. Successful members were then selected at random after we ensured we had a good mix ofpatient, public and parents.

The next meeting of the forum will take place inSeptember and, along with members already working on the Transformation project, it will provide a realplatform for letting the hospital hear the patients and other interested parties voices.

Members’ Forum

Can you really speed up treatment, reduce thenumber of tests whilst improving the quality of care – and save money?

Yes, you can and here lead gastroenterologist, Neil Shah (right), shows how the Transformationtargets are being put into place in his department.

“First of all,” Neil said “this has been a team effortwith other gastro consultants and nursing staffwilling to make these changes. We have also beenhelped by colleagues in other departments such as anaesthetists. Secondly the driving force behindthese changes has been to improve the treatment of the children and young people.”

This is one of the key issues behind theTransformation process – we want to improve the treatment of patients by doing as many things right first time as possible. The fact that this saves money is just a bonus and means money saved can go into treating even morepatients without increasing costs.

Neil explained how simple and yet effective thechanges to procedures in the Gastro Team havebeen. “A year ago the waiting time for referrals wassix months. This was for both patients coming toGOSH and also internal referrals for patients alreadyat the hospital for other conditions, who needed to see the Gastro Team for matters concerning their nutrition.

“Now we have no waiting times and the simplereason is that we are not giving patients such stronganaesthetics before procedures which means theirrecovery times are quicker, freeing up resources to treat more children.” The change in the use ofanaesthetics means that by the end of this year Neil expects 80-90 per cent of his patients to be day cases.

At the same time he has been improving the training of junior doctors so they are not wasting the patient’s time or resources by carrying outunnecessary tests. Fewer tests for the patient andbetter training for doctors also reduces the risk ofpotential harm.

Another simple change that has seen a massiveincrease in the number of cases being treated is inhow tissue samples are viewed in the labs.

-“We used to just view one tissue sample on a slideat a time. Now we analyse three tissue samples onone slide. This simple change means we only haveto change slides every fourth sample, enabling us to analyse 16 an hour as opposed to the 10 an hour previously.

Nurses are also being trained to carry outendoscopy procedures. Nurses have been doingthis in adult care for 10 years. Allowing them to do it in paediatric healthcare will mean that procedurescan be carried out faster, reducing waiting times,and allowing us to treat more patients.

The advances the Gastro Team have made alsomeans that they have more time to start to work with other hospitals in developing other services.This will mean that we can offer patients treatmentssuch as small bowel transplants and using bonemarrow transplants to grow new guts.

“Transformation has shown what fantastic things canhappen as the result of a few small changes. All ofthese have been done for the good of the childrenand we have had some really positive feedback fromthe parents. Also, with charitable donations helpingto transform Kingfisher Ward and buy some newequipment, we have the facilities to keep makingthese changes and improve the care we are able to offer our patients.”

Transformation: a consultant’s view

Every public institution has to produce an AnnualReport by law. Great Ormond Street Hospital’sannual report sets out what we have achieved in the past year and what we are aiming to do in theyear ahead, with an analysis of some importantfinancial information. We also illustrate the work we do with case studies of some of our patients.

Last year we mailed out the Annual Report with ashort questionnaire to the 700 people who, at thattime, wanted to be part of focus groups.

Their answers have helped inform how we havewritten and designed this year’s report. Forinstance, we have made the print size larger tomake it easier to read and we have also includedmore case studies which help bring the work of the hospital to life.

Some members were also concerned that thereport looked expensive to produce and wonderedif the money could be better spent on patient care.In response to this we have decided to cut costs by reducing the number of copies we print. Insteadof automatically sending a copy of the report tomembers, we would like to invite you to request oneshould you require one. The report will be availableto view on our website and we would like toencourage people to read it in this format.

The Annual Report will be launched at the AnnualGeneral Meeting (AGM) on September 24 2008when the chief executive and the chief financeofficer will report on the past year at Great OrmondStreet Hospital and talk about plans for the future.The meeting will be followed at 5.15pm by a publiclecture – entitled ‘Do early experiences matter forlater psychological development?’ – given byProfessor Sir Michael Rutter, Professor ofDevelopmental Psychopathology at the Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College, London.

If you would like to attend this year’s AGM onSeptember 24 2008 (4.30pm at UCL Institute ofChild Health, Guilford Street, London WC1N 1EH), or if you would like to request a copy of the TrustAnnual Report, please contact the membershipoffice at foundation@gosh.nhs.uk or telephone 020 7239 3123.

A year at GOSH

Our volunteering service is soon to become bigger and better. This is because, after a lengthyconsultation process about the role of volunteers inthe hospital, we have decided to employ a new fulltime manager whose job it will be to increase the role that volunteers play.

Volunteers play an important role in the hospital and we know that people who have had similarexperiences to the ones our families are goingthrough can be a great help. Various consultationswith members have shown that there is an interest inusing the parent as an expert, and this is somethingwe are keen to do through the volunteering service.

So, when the new head of the volunteering servicestarts at the Trust, we will make sure that they knowthere are more than 700 of you who want to help outat the hospital in a volunteering role. Unfortunately, we cannot allow under 18s to act as volunteers, soapologies to all the young people who have putthemselves forward. However, this may change in the future.

Meet a volunteer Clare RichClare’s been a storyteller for two-and-a-half years atGOSH. She comes in once a week to brighten up the day of the patients and give mums and dadssome respite too. Clare’s storytelling is usually one-to-one, except on Dinosaur and Safari Wards whereshe may get a group together, and she is always verysensitive on approaching the children. “You have toassess their needs and never force anything onthem,” Clare explained. “I always ask if they would like a story and sometimes they are not up to it.”

Clare also incorporates singing into herstorytelling which is a great way toinvolved younger children. “I’m happyto make a fool of myself and childrenlove it when an adult is prepared to besilly for their amusement. Also, childrenare great critics – they let you knowright away if they think you’rerubbish. Luckily that hasn'thappened to me – yet!”

New volunteeringservice

Patient Environment Action Team (PEAT) inspectionsare one of the ways the cleanliness of the hospital, aswell as the standard of the patients’ food is checkedand some Foundation Trust members have joined the team.

The inspections were introduced to the NHS in 2000 and are overseen by the National Patient Safety Agency. Although the PEAT inspections onlyhave to take place once a year, Great Ormond StreetHospital carries them out four times a year just to becertain that our standards continue to improve.

The teams, which are made up of hospital staff as wellas Foundation Trust members, mark cleanliness, thequality of a room’s decorations (curtains, carpets, etc),state of repair and meals on a scale from excellent tounacceptable. The results are then made public on theagency’s website www.npsa.nhs.uk/peat. Poor resultsare acted upon within the hospital but the results are also overseen by the agency, which has the power to visit a hospital unannounced and check the resultsare accurate.

One of the parents who took part in the first part of the inspection in January is, Damian Hill. “I wasimpressed by the thoroughness of the inspection andby how clean the hospital is.” The inspection alsohelped explain how the hospital will develop. “It wasgood to go round the hospital with someone from theEstates Team as I didn’t realise how old some of thehospital is and obviously some of the older parts,although clean, look old. But having a person on

the inspection who could explain how the hospital is going to change as the redevelopment goes onmade sense to me.”

Jenny Headlam-Wells was the other parent who tookpart in January’s inspection. Jenny has had plenty ofexperience of hospitals with her children being treatednot only at Great Ormond Street Hospital but alsoother hospitals around the country. “I thought theinspection was very well run. It was good to have a mixture of people in my team. While some of theolder hands were busy dragging their fingers acrossthe top of cupboards to see if there was any dust(there wasn’t) I was concentrating more on the generalatmosphere of the wards and found that they were well organised and efficient yet welcoming at the same time.”

Both Jenny and Damian also tried the patients’ meals.Both described the food as “really good” with Damiansaying, “it tasted as though it had been cooked bysomeone who cared rather than just heated up in amicrowave.” Jenny was surprised by the choice: “I was amazed to see seven different choices includinggoats cheese salad, which I was assured by one of the nurses did get chosen by the children andyoung people.”

It is really great to have parents involved in theinspections. The Trust is very grateful to all patients,parents, carers and others who help us in so many ways.

PEAT inspections

Above from left to right: Damian Hill, non-executive directorGillian Dalley, Jenny Headlam-Wells and Anna Cornish

Dignity DVDThe Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has also beencalling on members for their help. They are puttingtogether a DVD to train nurses on issues arounddignity in nursing. This issue is often talked about innursing adults and especially the elderly but thepeople in charge of putting the DVD togetherrealised that how children and young people aretreated is equally important.

Dr Leslie Baillie, a lecturer in Clinical SkillsDevelopment at London South Bank Universitywhere many of our nurses are trained, asked theFoundation Trust office to ask members to writeshort sketches describing their experiences of being treated with dignity. These sketches are to be turned into scripts and acted out byprofessional actors for the DVD.

Only one person supplied any information, a 12 yearold patient of ours, Fergus Hunt. Fergus had his firstoperation at Great Ormond Street Hospital when hewas 12 hours old and his most recent one inFebruary of this year – 12 years later. So as you can imagine he knows a thing or two about being a patient and how he likes to be treated when he is in the hospital.

Dr Baillie was very impressed with the examples(both good and bad) he supplied and they are going to be used as part of the DVD. This will form a basis for how to treat children and young peoplewith dignity not just at great Ormond Street Hospitalbut throughout all hospitals.

You can read in full what Fergus said on the frontpage of Bright Sparks.

Staying focussedThe membership now stands at around 4,500 whichmeans that we have to take more care in writing and emailing people with the correct information.The membership office wouldn’t want to wastepeople’s time and the hospital’s money by sendingout information that wasn’t of any interest to thosewho received it.

To make sure we are sending the correct informationout we use the details on the membership form youfilled in.

Everyone receives the newsletter. Information about questionnaires, joining particular groups and working parties goes to people who have ticked the focus group box and people who tickedthe ‘interested in standing for election box’ were the people we wrote to inviting them to putthemselves forward for the Member’s Forum.

If you are just receiving the newsletter but havingread it now find you want to get more involved,please get in touch with the membership office and we will alter our database. Similarly if you are receiving information about focus groups and no longer want this level of involvement, please also get in touch.

The membership office can be contacted by telephoning 020 7239 3123 or emailfoundation@gosh.nhs.uk or write to Tim Starkey, hospital liaison officer at GreatOrmond Street Hospital, 40 Bernard Street, London, WC1N 1LE.

Foundation Trust

Making sure nurses treat patients with care anddignity is a really important part of nursing. Patientsnot only need the right sort of medical care, they alsoneed to feel as if they are being treated by people that really care about them.

The Royal College of Nursing (which trains nurseswho work in English hospitals) is making a DVDshowing nurses good and bad examples of how totreat patients. This DVD is made up of real storieswritten by patients then performed by actors. The DVDwill be used to train all sorts of nurses all over thecountry.

Leslie Baillie, who is putting the DVD together, did nothave any stories from children or young people andso got in touch with us to ask if any patients wantedto write about their treatment by nurses. Only one ofour patients wrote in, but Leslie was really impressedwith what he had to say and this will now be used inthe DVD. Here is what Fergus (right) wrote:

“My name is Fergus. I am 12 years old and sinceI have been born I have had lots of operationsand visits to the hospital. Most of the nurses arereally nice because they talk to me and makesure I am ok but some just think that I am anobject that they have to work on so that they getpaid. I can remember one nurse who put a dripin me and didn’t talk to me or ask me if thecannula was in a comfortable spot.

“My favourite nurses talk to me and if they are not too busy they come around and spendsome time with me. A really good nurse came to talk to me in the middle of the night (because I had a really big operation the next day andcould not get to sleep). After she had done myobservations, she sat down next to me and had a look in my Guinness Book of Records and hada chat with me for a long time.

“There are other nurses that I have seen all my life. When I had a problem with bullies, theygave me some tips about how to deal with thebullies and I feel that I can talk to them about all the difficulties that I have to face with my problems”.

Thanks Fergus. By writing in you will help ensure that other children and young people are treated with dignity by the nurses that look after them.

Friends of Great Ormond Street Children’s Charitywould like to invite you to their annual party. The partytakes place at the Paradise Wildlife Park in Broxbourneon Saturday 6 September.

There will be lots of fun events to take part in, lots ofparty food and a special birthday cake to celebrate theFriends 10th birthday. As well as games, there is goingto be a fancy dress competition with presents forwhoever comes in the best animal costume.

Tickets are free if you are already a member of theFriends Membership Scheme, otherwise adults cost £8 and children £7. There is no charge for childrenunder two.

To get tickets or for more information about the Friends scheme please contact Amy Crust on 020 7239 3003 or email her atamy.crust@gosh.org.

You can read in the adult part of the newsletter thatwe have started a new Members Forum. This will givemembers a chance to meet every couple of monthsto discuss matters that are important to them. The two young people who had put themselves forwardcouldn’t make the first meeting because of theirexams. To make sure that we include the views ofyoung people in the meeting, the Forum deliberatelydidn’t talk about something called Omar’s List, as thisdirectly affects young people.

Omar’s List is a list of what patients would expectfrom the hospital and its staff when they come for treatment.

As well as the young people who come to themeeting having their say, it is important that as many of you as possible give us your opinions. So have a look at Omar’s List below and let themembership office know if there is anything you want to add. The list will be looked at again at thenext Forum meeting in September. After it is finalisedit will be used for training hospital staff.

Omar’s List1. Don’t make the young person feel as if they

are the problem.

2. Don’t make the young person feel as if it’s their fault they are sick.

3. Don’t make the young person feel that they are an organ, a disease or a rare syndrome instead of a person.

4. Remember that same sex staff can be important.

5. Please talk to the young person and explain to them what is happening/why they are here/what is going to happen.

6. Please respect the young person and ask if it is possible to go elsewhere if you need to say distressing things, for instance, to ask me about my experience of a colonoscopy.

7. Always offer the young person the chance for a private discussion with the consultant if they wish.

If you have any comments on Omar’s List pleasesend them to the membership office either byemail to foundation@gosh.nhs.uk or by post to Tim Starkey, Great Ormond Street Hospital, 40 Bernard Street, London, WC1N 1LE.

On Saturday 20 September we will be holding an event at Great Ormond Street Hospital specificallyaimed at adolescents. While most of our patients areunder three years of age, we are aware that we alsotreat a significant number of young people who havecompletely different needs.

On the day young people will be given the chance to make a DVD expressing how they would like to be treated while at the hospital. The DVD will then be shown to staff.

There will also be an opportunity for young people toreceive advice from a number of organisations on howto lead a full life with a long term health condition.

We are still planning the event so we will bemailing out young people nearer the time but if you have any ideas or want more informationthen get in touch with the membership office on020 7239 3123 or email foundation@gosh.nhs.uk.

Time for Teens

Omar’s List

Have your say

Supporters of Great Ormond Street Hospital, many ofthem children, took part in The Big Time Rhyme inMarch in an effort to break a world record. This wasthe highlight of Peter Pan week at the hospital.

All the royalties made from selling copies of the Peter Pan book have come to the hospital since the we were granted the rights by the author JM Barrie,and the follow-up Peter Pan in Scarlet is carrying on this tradition.

Organised by Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’sCharity, we got thousands of people to read the poem‘To the Top’ from Peter Pan in Scarlet to break theworld record for the number of people reading aloudat once.

Many schools and other groups took part and all overthe country at exactly 9.15am on 7 March they all

read the verse at the same time. Each person thatread gave the charity £3, so they not only had thechance to be record breakers, but also helped thecharity at the same time.

If your school took part in the Big Time Rhyme pleasecan you make sure they have been in touch with thecharity so that we can add up all of the people who were involved.

If you would like your school to help the hospital in some other way then contactClaire Mehmet by phoning 020 7239 3009 or email claire.mehmet@gosh.org

Above: Geraldine McCaughrean, author of Peter Pan inScarlet, joins pupils at New End Primary School inHampstead, for the Big Time Rhyme.

Research results from the top of the World

The biggest rhymeThe biggest rhyme

Research results from the Research results from the top of the World

The biggest rhyme

top of the WorldResearch results from the top of the World

The biggest rhyme

A while ago we told you about a professor fromthe UCL Institute of Child Health* who took somechildren to the bottom of Mount Everest.

Well, the results from this amazing form ofresearch are now beginning to be made public.The research was done to find new ways oftreating children whose lungs don’t work as well as they should. These include children who are born early and placed in intensive care or those with conditions such as cystic fibrosis.

The nine children, aged between six and 13, were taken to the bottom of the mountain, which is3,500 metres above sea level. At this altitude thereis a lot less oxygen to breathe than normal andthis is rather like dealing with one of the medicalconditions the team were researching.

The children and young people took part in varioustests and initial findings have shown that patientsbeing treated for conditions such as cystic fibrosiscould probably be treated at home a lot more,therefore cutting out a lot of hospital visits.

The research also showed that different childrenhave different reactions to low oxygen. This will lead to further research into babies in intensive care, where too much oxygen can lead to blindness.

The research was partly funded by Smiths Medicaland they will also be adapting some of theirequipment as a result of the findings. In future it is hoped that a lot of medical tests will be ableto be done at homes so that children won’t have to come into the hospital at all.

* UCL Institute of Child Health works with Great Ormond Street Hospital to find cures and treatments for lots of illnesses that affect children.