A unique access guide that will empower disabled people to access healthcare with confidence is set to launch this month.
DisabledGo, the UK’s foremost provider of disabled access information, has produced a unique new online guide to Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Trust (GOSH). The aim of the guide is to provide detailed, accurate information so people can find out more about the access they will find when they come to visit. Put together thanks to sponsorship from GOSH, the DisabledGo guide covers all patient services within the Hospital.
The new guide comes at a time of ambitious change for the Hospital as they battle with buildings that are nearing the end of their useful lives and must be replaced. Without this redevelopment, advances in technology and treatments will not be so readily translated into real improvements in the care of sick children. World-class facilities that embrace the latest technologies are vital to the Hospital’s ability to make a real and long lasting impact on the health of children across the globe.
Phase 1 of the redevelopment (which is split into four phases) was completed in 2006 at a cost of £88 million, transforming the experience of children, families and staff. The redevelopment resulted in new clinical facilities, a patient and family hotel and improved outpatient facilities for services within the neighbouring Royal London Homeopathic Hospital.
Credit to Llewelyn Davies Yeang (2)
All of these new facilities will be available to view on the DisabledGo-Great Ormond Street Hospital access guide. By logging on to www.disabledgo.com people can check, where their consultation room is in relation to the main entrance, whether there are lifts to access other floors, whether a hearing loop is fitted at reception, the type of announcements in waiting areas, whether information is available in alternative formats and in-depth information about adapted toilets.
The final two phases have yet to be fully costed and designed but Phases 3 and 4 of the redevelopment programme include the relocation of outpatient services into a new Ambulatory Care Centre and the creation of a new central square and main entrance pavilion.
The re-development will see the Hospital’s oldest facilities upgraded to provide the world-class standard GOSH seeks to deliver and the new online access guide will help increase patient choice and improve the clinical experience.