22 Years of Life-Saving Support: How the CWRF Supports Great Ormond Street Hospital
The Children’s Welfare and Research Foundation (CWRF) has supported Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity (GOSH Charity) since 2002, raising over £1,000,000. Over these 22 years thanks to the money raised, we have funded various pieces of specialist medical equipment and child-centred spaces at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH). Below are some of the items that have been funded over the years.
2024 – Bacteriology Light Microscopes
In 2024, the CWRF raised £52,519 to fund 3 Bacteriology Laboratory Light Microscopes at GOSH.
Light Microscopy is used in the Clinical Microbiology laboratory to help diagnose severe infections. This occurs by connecting the microscopes to a laboratory flat screen so the clinical team can look together at the abnormalities in cells and quickly work together to diagnose infections.
The new microscopes funded by the CWRF ensures microscopy results are more accurate, enabling clinicians to continue to provide a specialist, high-quality service for their patients through quick and accurate diagnostics and treatment recommendations.
2023 – Anaesthetic Ultrasound Machines
In 2023, the CWRF raised £50,000 to fund 2 Anaesthetic Ultrasound Machines at GOSH. These machines provide the ability for doctors to perform any number of nerve injections and catheter placements with real-time image guidance, creating a safer environment that reduces complications of these needle insertion procedures.
Using advanced algorithms and high-quality imaging, the new machines funded by the CWRF enable accurate tissue differentiation, needle visualization, and clear images for even the most challenging procedures. This allows the teams at the hospital to make faster assessments and confident decisions.
2019 – Emergency Assessment Room in the Sight and Sound Centre
Great Ormond Street Hospital’s Sight and Sound Centre, supported by Premier Inn, is an outpatient facility which opened in 2021 and is the first building of its kind in the UK dedicated to children with sight and hearing loss.
In 2019, the CWRF donated £55,000 towards the centre’s emergency assessment room. This room is equipped to allow staff to manage a child that needs emergency care. Children who are acutely ill can wait in this room and be looked after whilst they wait to be transferred over to the hospital or retrieved in an ambulance and taken to an emergency department elsewhere.
2016 – Ultrasound Machine to Deliver Medication During Eye Surgery
2016 saw the CWRF donate £40,000 to fund an ultrasound machine used in GOSH’s Ophthalmology department. During eye surgery, children may need ‘lines’ put into their veins or arteries to deliver medication or may need injections into nerves to numb the areas around them.
This ultrasound imaging device, funded by CWRF, is a machine that allows the doctors putting a needle into a blood vessel or near a nerve to see that they are placing it in the correct place without damaging any other tissue. Thanks to these machines, and the chances of complications during eye surgery will be greatly reduced.
“The contribution the Children’s Welfare and Research Foundation has made to helping seriously ill children and their families at GOSH by funding specialist medical equipment and child-centred spaces has been considerable. We are incredibly grateful for your continued support and for everything you do to help make the hospital extraordinary for more patients and families. On behalf of everybody at GOSH Charity, thank you.”
Liz Tait, Director of Fundraising at Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity
