Each year, we provide care to more than 450,000 children and young people.
Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, located in Liverpool UK, is at the heart of Alder Hey and is one of Europe’s biggest and busiest children’s hospitals, where we treat everything from common illnesses to highly complex and specialist conditions.
We know that a children’s hospital is different and that our job is more than just treating an illness. To us, every child is an individual. As well as giving them the very best care, we set out to make them feel happy, safe and confident as they play, learn and grow. At Alder Hey, we are here to look after a child and their family and that includes mums, dads, brothers and sisters.
Alder Hey offers a number of specialist services and we are one of only two providers in the North West designated to receive the specialist children’s top-up to national tariff for this work. We are one of the two accredited major trauma centres for children in the North West and are also nationally commissioned as one of four epilepsy surgical centres, a service we provide in partnership with Manchester Children’s Hospital. As the regional cardiac surgical centre, we continue to lead in developing the cardiac network across the region to provide seamless care pathways for children with congenital heart problems. The Trust also is one of four commissioned paediatric national craniofacial units.
The Trust employs a workforce of 4,115 staff who work across our community and hospital sites. As a teaching and training hospital, we provide education and training to around 900 medical and over 800 nursing and allied health professional students each year.
Alder Hey is also a proud member of The Cheshire & Merseyside Health & Care Partnership.
We are also accredited by the Veterans Covenant Healthcare Alliance (VCHA).
Alder Hey Children’s Health Campus and Community
We moved into our new state-of-the-art hospital in 2015, replacing our old hospital which had been our home since 1914. The hospital was officially opened on 22nd June 2016 by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip.
In March 2016 we opened our Institute in the Park, also known as the Speakman Building – our dedicated research, innovation and education centre located next door to our hospital.
Within this building, academic researchers, healthcare professionals, technology companies, commercial research teams, students and educators can collaborate freely in one shared space.
The Institute also provides the perfect location for our teaching and training sessions, enabling us to improve the skills and knowledge of healthcare professionals. It is home to our Alder Hey Academy and education teams who offer training, education and continuing professional development to our staff, along with the next generation of health specialists.
We opened the Alder Centre, the UK’s only dedicated bereavement centre for child loss, in September 2021. And the Catkin Centre, our new community, mental health, and outpatient facility, was opened in October 2022. Sunflower House, our 12-bedroom inpatient mental health facility, was opened in May 2023, replacing the old Dewi Jones Unit in Waterloo.
Work is also underway on building our new Surgical Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), in partnership with Liverpool Women’s Hospital.
Together, these innovative and forward-thinking facilities will be part of our evolving Children’s Health Campus, located next to Springfield Park. The Campus will be an innovative, vibrant, and safe place focused on developing the very best health outcomes for children and young people and will show Alder Hey as a leader in children’s healthcare.
In addition to our Children’s Health Campus, we offer paediatric services at a number of community sites and hold local clinics across Merseyside, Cumbria, Shropshire, Wales and the Isle of Man, ensuring we are able to provide the best care to our families in the heart of our communities.
We are becoming recognised as one of the world’s leaders in children’s healthcare and research. Alder Hey’s Clinical Research Facility (CRF) is one of 28 research facilities across the UK funded by the NIHR, and one of two exclusively for paediatric patients. The state-of-the-art child-centred facility provides the safest environment for early translational and experimental medicine research.
We continue to drive innovation in paediatric healthcare within our Innovation Hub. The Innovation Hub is a dedicated space where clinicians and industries can come together to create new products and technologies.
We are…
- A Centre of Excellence for cancer, as well as spinal, heart and brain conditions
- A regional cardiac surgical centre
- A Department of Health Centre for Head and Face Surgery
- A Centre of Excellence for Muscular Dystrophy and the first UK Centre of Excellence for Childhood Lupus
- One of four national centres for childhood epilepsy surgery, a joint service with the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital
- A designated children’s Major Trauma Centre
- A World Health Organisation-accredited health-promoting hospital
We have…
- Europe’s first intra-operative 3-T MRI scanner in a paediatric setting. This is a pioneering technology for neurosurgery, reducing repeat operations in 90% of cases
- A new hybrid operating theatre which is the first in the country suitable for operating on children from different specialities including heart, brain or spinal surgery
Alder Hey remains one of only four stand-alone paediatric trusts in the country providing specialist treatment to children from across the UK.