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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

GOSH Capture *sigh*

54 replies

Distractable · 24/06/2020 14:44

Saw this online today - Pride being celebrated at Great Ormond Street Hospital. By soliciting donations to Mermaids.

My first post on Mumsnet - but long time lurker appreciating the great wisdom here.

GOSH Capture  *sigh*
OP posts:
BringbackLang · 24/06/2020 14:47

What the?

wrongsideofhistorymyarse · 24/06/2020 14:47

i'm not surprised. Charities are woke as hell - my own is signed up to Stonewall.

SirVixofVixHall · 24/06/2020 15:06

Cancelling my direct debit to GOSH.

CuriousaboutSamphire · 24/06/2020 15:12

No, don't cancel. Grab some details from the various threads and let them know why they are making an error.

SunsetBeetch · 24/06/2020 15:21

Oh no ☹️

BingBongSong · 24/06/2020 15:22

Oh no Sad. I have a direct debit to GOSH. I'll write to them.

Al1Langdownthecleghole · 24/06/2020 17:40

I'm not even sure about how accurate it is to describe Pride as a non-profit. I mean, it's NP in the sense that there are no profits for the owners/shareholders, but that's not to say there aren't people making a lot of money off the back of it.

TorkTorkBam · 24/06/2020 17:41

Noooooooo. I donate to GOSH.

OhHolyJesus · 24/06/2020 17:45

I'm not even surprised at this point.

Isn't that sad?

I don't donate to them if anyone who does shouldn't just cancel but cancel and write to tell them why.

MrsNoah2020 · 24/06/2020 17:46

Consider donating to another charity. Not because of Mermaids, but because GOSH is absolutely loaded. Many, many paediatric services are desperate for support, but don't get cash because they don't have GOSH's profile.

Haveastock · 24/06/2020 18:32

Just thinking about all the kids in GOSH going through unimaginable pain from major surgery and heavy-duty drugs. What they would give to have a choice not to have to go through that. And there's the jolly rainbow and Mermaids poster asking to raise money for an organisation that encourages young people in their quest for the removal of perfectly healthy breast-tissue, invasive genital surgeries and hormonal treatments. Totally, totally wrong. Why Mermaids?? Do people just see the twinkly logo and think 'ah that's nice!'.

Haveastock · 24/06/2020 18:33

Please don't stop giving GOSH money though - that would be wrong.

Thinkingabout1t · 24/06/2020 18:48

It's frightening to think that people at our major children's hospital are on trans bandwagon. Surely unwell children are among the most vulnerable to kindly authority figures such as medics and nurses encouraging them to believe they're in "the wrong body".

EarlofEggMcMuffin · 24/06/2020 18:57

Is it me or does it seem to be like dominoes at the moment?

I cannot believe the number of places that think it's ok to teach children that there is anything wrong with the body they were born into. (And I work with children who have been born missing limbs, or hearing or eyesight or what ever).

Very disheartening.

JemimaShore · 24/06/2020 19:10

It's very disappointing to see children's hospitals, and other organisations still recommending, and fundraising for Mermaids. Have the Newsnight reports completely passed them by?

I'd rather see funds going into GOSH than into a "charity" which tells children they're born into the wrong body because of gender stereotypes.

WHY does GOSH have staff/time to work on this stuff?

HopeClearwater · 24/06/2020 19:21

Consider donating to another charity. Not because of Mermaids, but because GOSH is absolutely loaded

This^ Donate to one of the regional children’s hospitals, or to one of the many hospices for children, or to respite services. A doctor from GOSH told a relative of mine that they’ve got plenty of money coming in from around the world and she could make more of a difference directing it somewhere else.

Michelleoftheresistance · 24/06/2020 19:25

The big charities are managed by the same pool of people who all periodically swap jobs, it's a very incestuous group and no one who doesn't have the right beliefs and history will get the top jobs. They are very woke and many have odd beliefs, with limited awareness of safeguarding. A friend worked in one for a while liaising with others in the area and ended up leaving in despair at the culture, waste of money and idiocy going on in every one she worked with. I heard the horror stories.

As PP says, GOSH are loaded and there will always be small local children's medical need and cancer charities not run by a vast corporate team and desperate for funds. I've increasingly shifted all donations to small and local charities where their brief is very clear, the impact immediate and apparent, and the leaders not confused with a lot of extraneous political righteousness. It's been nice.

Michelleoftheresistance · 24/06/2020 19:26

And yy to donating to local children's hospices, they do amazing work.

RaveOnThisCrazyFeeling · 24/06/2020 19:37

If a charity can afford to raise money for Mermaids rather than for their own cause, they don't need your money.

MarkRuffaloCrumble · 24/06/2020 19:41

There’s a fabulous kids charity called Supershoes - they make custom Converse for children going through cancer treatment, to help put a smile on their face and remind them of who they are without the cancer. Maybe consider donating to them if you’re cancelling your GOSH donation?

niceberg · 24/06/2020 19:42

Is this even an official GOSH poster/leaflet though? On my phone, but I don't see their logo anywhere, which is odd.

Furx · 24/06/2020 19:45

@EarlofEggMcMuffin

Is it me or does it seem to be like dominoes at the moment?

I cannot believe the number of places that think it's ok to teach children that there is anything wrong with the body they were born into. (And I work with children who have been born missing limbs, or hearing or eyesight or what ever).

Very disheartening.

That was always my thinking.

No one seems to ask people with severe disabilities if they feel they are born in the wrong body. I don’t doubt they feel shortchanged.

That’s why I think the whole ‘Wrong body‘ narrative is offensive. It’s a body, your body. It is intact, it works. Focus the effort onto acceptance , not mutilation.

And I say that as someone who has/had dysphoria.

SirVixofVixHall · 24/06/2020 19:47

Great ideas for alternatives, thank you.

AardvarkWrangler · 24/06/2020 19:51

My opinion of the credibility of GOSH will long be shaped by the experience of whistleblower Dr. Kim Holt and her colleagues and by the actions of the then-head of GOSH, Jane Collins after the murder of Baby P.
From Daily Telegraph 2009 (there are plenty of other articles if you have an understandable distrust of the DT)

"Dr Kim Holt told how she and all three of her senior colleagues raised concerns — more than a year before 17-month-old Peter Connelly came to the clinic in summer 2007 — that it was “falling apart” and that a child would die if action was not taken. “We were at our wits’ end,” she said. “We knew that a case like Baby Peter was going to happen.”

Instead of taking action, she said, Great Ormond Street, which employed the doctors, forced her out of the clinic on “wholly spurious grounds” and later offered her a six-figure sum to “buy my silence”.

Dr Holt was one of four permanent consultants at the paediatric clinic, at St Ann’s Hospital, Haringey. Of the other three, two left in disgust and one went sick for a period. By the time Peter became a patient at the clinic, none of the four was in place. He saw Dr Holt’s replacement, an inexperienced temporary locum — who sent him home after allegedly failing to notice he had a broken back. Two days later, the 17-month-old was found dead in his bloodstained cot with eight broken ribs, severe lacerations to his head, a tip of a finger missing, broken teeth, missing nails, and scores of cuts.

After Peter’s death, Dr Holt said, Great Ormond Street approached her and offered her a sum rising to £120,000 to leave her job and stay silent. Documents supporting this claim have been seen by The Sunday Telegraph.

“They were in a panic [after Baby P],” she said. “They said I had to withdraw my allegations or the money was off the table. They wanted me to sign a statement saying that all my concerns had been addressed. I refused because it would have been a lie. They were trying to buy my silence... The Great Ormond Street managers were obsessed with Government targets. We were just supposed to process the children and not care about their lives. The world knows Great Ormond Street as this beacon of the care of children. But the case of Haringey shows its reputation is misplaced. There is something which is not right at the heart of this hospital. There are many wonderful doctors there, but the ethos has been undermined by a core of people who are failing in their duty.”

BBC website 2011
"A government minister has called on the chief executive of Great Ormond Street Hospital (Gosh) to resign for "covering up" failings in the Baby Peter case.

Liberal Democrat Lynne Featherstone accuses the hospital of withholding crucial information about the children's clinic where its locum doctor examined the toddler two days before he died.

It follows an investigation by BBC London which reveals the hospital failed to pass on to an official inquiry findings of a report into St Ann's clinic in Haringey, including the fact its senior doctor viewed it as "clinically risky".

Home Office minister Ms Featherstone has said the government should investigate and called for Dr Jane Collins to step down.

She said: "I'm disgusted. I cannot believe that anyone, let alone people in these very trusted positions, would hold back, withhold, doctor, cover-up information."
'First class CEO'

The chairwoman of the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Trust, Baroness Tessa Blackstone, said: "The trust board has complete confidence in Dr Collins, she is a first class CEO.

"As a board we have confidence that the trust has never sought to mislead any inquiry into the death of a child. The non-executive directors have met Ms Featherstone to discuss her concerns with her.

"We did not accept her views." "

Lynne was rightfully hot on safeguarding back then.

CoffeeTeaChocolate · 24/06/2020 19:53

Does anyone have a link a place with a lot of factual information about the issues with mermaids?

The mum of one of my DDs classmates is quite involved with GOSH. I don’t know her at all apart from hello, but I would like to try to talk to her if I can. Would need to be prepared though.