Celebration marks 50 years of specialist baby care

Unveiling of a commemorative plaque to mark 50 years of specialist baby care on Gosset Ward

Family and former colleagues of pioneering children’s doctor Isaac Henry “Harry” Gosset gathered at Northampton General Hospital to mark 50 years of specialist care for premature babies. 

They were joined by parents and babies who had first-hand experience of the care provided at the 50-year-old Gosset Ward at an event to celebrate the life of Dr Gosset, Northampton’s first consultant paediatrician. 

Chief Executive Dr Sonia Swart, said: “Dr Gosset’s pioneering work in neonatal medicine and the successful establishment of premature baby care in Northampton is an important and ongoing legacy. From the outset he was determined to provide the very highest quality and most progressive care to the children of Northamptonshire.  And this is an ethos which we continue to share today. Fifty years after its opening, the Gosset Unit proudly bears his name and continues to uphold the ideals from which he devoted his practice.”

Doctor Isaac Henry “Harry” Gosset

Dr Andrew N. Williams, consultant community paediatrician and curator of the hospital archive said:  “Dr Gosset was a pioneer in neonatal care and set up one of this first premature baby units in the United Kingdom. His invention, the icterometer, undoubtedly prevented severe disability in many children. It is only right that we have this commemoration for Dr Gosset coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Gosset Neonatal Unit, posthumously renamed in his memory.“

Gosset Ward is a neonatal intensive care unit which cares for newborn babies who require special high dependency or intensive care nursing.