By Ann Gould 

Artwork on the wall of  Moorfields Eye Hospital by artist Banksy, which has been hidden for the last four years behind a hoarding has been sold at auction for £30,000 in aid of the hospital's groundbreaking research into new treatments for eye disease on Thursday 7 October.

Charitable support has played a major role at Moorfields eye hospital since it was founded more than 200 years ago. The money raised will be used to fund crucial research into eye disease and make it possible to buy new equipment to improve treatments and facilities for patients.

The money will also fund specialist items of equipment and important research posts in Moorfields' new vision research and treatment centre. This will help  to speed up the translation of research advances into better treatments for patients. The partnership is also associated with scientists at the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology.

Additional facilities at the new centre increases Moorfields' capacity to carry clinical trials and run early-phase trials which will provide essential safety data for new treatments. Improved imaging and photography facilities will be available as well as increased space for conducting visual field tests. There will also be family consultation rooms for genetic counselling and a new functional assessment unit to help patients make the best use of new devices and therapeutic improvements developed by our researchers.