NHS (Charitable Trusts Etc.) Bill — House of Commons, 2015-11-06
Topic: Health
Anne Marie Morris (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend makes a crucial point. Reputation is critical. The changes that we are making today will add to the charity’s reputation and help it to raise further funds for what is a worthwhile cause If I may, I will continue to explain the fascinating history of Great Ormond Street hospital, the contribution it has made to our country, and why the Bill is so important and valuable and has my support and that of the Government, despite the hospital’s humble beginnings. Just as you arrived, Madam Deputy Speaker, I was explaining that the hospital originally had just 10 beds and two doctors, and was situated in a 17th-century townhouse. It has constantly redeveloped itself to ensure that it is suitable for the treatment of modern illnesses as medicine develops Before the inception of the NHS in 1948, Great Ormond Street was a voluntary hospital that ran fundraising campaigns to expand its size from the 1850s onwards. Because private fundraising was strongly regulated, it was owing to the support of people such as Barrie who left legacies to the hospital that it was able to develop the highest standards Throughout its history, the hospital has been at the forefront of numerous breakthroughs in paediatric healthcare, such as appointing the first consultant paediatric surgeon, Denis Browne, in 1928; opening the UK’s first heart and lung unit in 1947; opening the UK’s first leukaemia research unit in 1961; pioneering the first heart and lung bypass machine for children in 1961; performing the first successful bone marrow transplant in Britain in 1979; undertaking the world’s first stem cell-supported trachea transplant in a child in 2010; becoming Europe’s first children’s hospital to offer a portable haemodialysis service in 2010; and opening the Newlife birth defects research centre in 2012, which is Europe’s first research centre to tackle birth defects Great Ormond Street hospital would not be able to make such advances without the relevant and up-to-date equipment it has. Thanks to its supporters, it is able to provide its patients with leading-edge equipment, so that its exceptional doctors and nurses can improve diagnosis and treatment, and continue to provide children with the world-class care they need. In one notable instance, a 15-year-old machine developed an unrepairable fault and had to be replaced in 2012. If the funds to upgrade it had not been available, the hospital would have had to continue to refer patients elsewhere for imaging, which would have been inconvenient for families and costly to the hospital The equipment owned by the hospital includes specialist X-ray equipment, such as cone beam CT technology, which can take high-quality 3D images with less radiation than a standard CT scanner. The ultrasound equipment in the Dubowitz neuromuscular centre is used to assess about 350 patients each year and helps clinicians to make a faster and more accurate diagnosis of conditions such as muscular dystrophies, myopathies and motor neurone disease. Nutritional equipment includes equipment that can help patients, such as premature babies, those in intensive care, or those receiving treatment for gastrointestinal conditions or cancer. Because those patients are in a fragile state or receiving strong medication, they need a precise recipe with the right balance of fluids and nutrients, and the hospital is able to provide it.