King’s College Hospital Pioneering Paediatrics
Established in 1840, King’s College Hospital has been providing excellent care for 175 years. In 1899, King’s established the UK’s first department of childhood diseases headed by Dr George Frederic Still (1868-1941). He was appointed by King’s College as the first Professor of Paediatrics in England. The history of liver disease begins at King’s with the work of George Budd (1808-1882). In 1840, he was appointed Professor of Medicine at King’s College London, and made a special study of liver diseases, producing one of the earliest books on the subject.
Today, King’s College Hospital is one of the largest and busiest hospitals in London, with a well-established national and international reputation for clinical excellence, innovation and achievement in liver disease and transplantation, neurosciences, haemato-oncology and foetal medicine.
Patients come to King’s from all over the world – for the skill and expertise of the clinical teams and the hospital’s reputation as a pioneer in medical research. Transferring the results of this research from bench to patient bedside is now quicker and easier thanks to King’s role within the King’s Health Partners, one of only six Academic Health Science Centres in the UK.
The Variety Children’s Hospital at King’s
The Variety Children’s Hospital at King’s College Hospital, was developed during the 1960s under the leadership of Professor Sir Eric Stroud. Professor Stroud promoted the development of the new born baby specialty led by Harold Gamsu. In 1970 Sir, Eric was instrumental in the appointment of Dr Alex Mowat as the UK’s first Consultant Paediatrician and Paediatric Hepatologist. Mowat, with Stroud’s support, built a children’s liver unit to complement the adult liver unit established in 1966 under the direction of Professor Roger Williams.
Today the Variety Children’s Hospital is one of the UK’s leading centres for children’s healthcare. The hospital provides a range of services from routine care and minor surgery to life-saving, specialist treatments for over 40,000 children every year.
Children of all ages receive treatment, from newborns through to those in their late teens, from the local south London community and, in specialist cases, from across the UK and the world. The hospital is a specialist referral centre for children’s liver disease, respiratory conditions such as cystic fibrosis, neurosurgery, and sickle cell disease.
The Variety Children’s Hospital is located alongside the adult services at King’s College Hospital. The co-location of children’s and adult services means that our patients are cared for in the child-focussed Variety Children’s Hospital throughout their
In 2009, King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust became part of King’s Health Partners, one of only six Academic Health Sciences Centres in England designated by the Department of Health. As part of the King’s Health Partners, King’s aims to bring about faster and more effective improvements in health, ultimately impacting the health and well-being of children.
King’s researchers and clinicians work together to combine the best of basic and translational research, to improve patient care, develop better treatments and increase our understanding of disease. As one of London’s largest teaching hospitals, research findings are disseminated and shared with health professionals around the world.
Research undertaken at King’s has a positive impact on the health of children not just in London and the UK, but across the globe.