Harold Gamsu

Short abstract

A pioneer in the development of neonatal intensive care

During the 30 years that Harold Gamsu spent as professor of neonatology at King's College Hospital, London, the hospital's neonatal unit became a nationally recognised centre of excellence. Harold also established a need for regional neonatal services and was instrumental in developing centres of excellence outside London.

Figure 1.

He was a founding member and the first chairman of the South East Thames Regional Perinatal Monitoring Group, which guided developments in services and sought to achieve consensus for major projects, such as the introduction of the first computer system for neonatal and maternal care.

Harold also drove forward and chaired the South East Thames Confidential Review into Perinatal Deaths from 1987 to the advent of the national Confidential Enquiry into Stillbirths and Deaths in Infancy in 1992. He was instrumental in securing a regional study into the causes, management, and outcome of low birth-weight babies, which has accumulated many years of data, and he initiated a national survey on necrotising enterocolitis. He also developed one of the first breast milk banks in the country.

After qualifying he worked at the African State Hospital in Windhoek, Namibia. He began his training in paediatrics at Sheffield Children's Hospital and then moved to Ohio, United States, to work at the Cleveland Metropolitan General Hospital. He returned to Namibia before taking up posts at King's College Hospital, London.

He leaves a wife, Sheila; four children; and 10 grandchildren.

Harold Gamsu, professor of neonatology King's College Hospital, London, 1965-93 (b Windhoek, Namibia, 1931; q Witwatersrand, South Africa, 1954; FRCP Ed, FRCP), died on 31 August 2004 from complications following abdominal surgery.