The Duchess of Cambridge visits Great Ormond Street Hospital
Published
The Duchess of Cambridge has visited Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) to officially open the Mittal Children's Medical Centre, home to the new Premier Inn Clinical Building.
The new centre will help the hospital to provide world class care to more children and will increase is patient capacity.
Great Ormond Street Hospital has a long connection with The Royal Family; The Queen is currently Patron and has visited a number of times throughout her reign.
Queen Victoria was the first Patron of the hospital, which was founded in 1852, and the image below shows the ward in 1864 after Queen Victoria had donated toys to the children.
Princess Alexandra, Princess of Wales (later Queen Alexandra) laid the foundation stone of the '1875 Building' and Princess Mary, The Princess Royal, finished her nurse training at GOSH in 1920 and Diana, Princess of Wales became President in 1989.
On today's visit, The Duchess of Cambridge was greeted at GOSH by supporters of the new building project, which will deliver the hospital's vision of providing modern facilities for its acute inpatients and will see children moved out of old facilities into brand new, modern wards with ensuite bedrooms where parents or carers can stay comfortably overnight by their child’s bedside.
Her Royal Highness then paid a visit to the Panther and Bear Ward, to meet some patients and families, to learn more about how the new centre is having a positive impact on patients and their families.
The Duchess then had the chance to meet some of GOSH's incredible nursing team, whose work enables GOSH to be one the world leading children's hospitals.
It was then time to officially open the new Mittal Children's Medical Centre.
Her Royal Highness finished a the visit with a short speech, to congratulate Great Ormond Street on the incredible work they do.
