Dubai: Al Jalila Children’s Speciality Hospital has partnered with the Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust in Liverpool to create a healthier future for children and young people worldwide.
Officials from both institutions signed an agreement on Tuesday witnessed by the Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, wife of the Prince of Wales, during an official visit to the UAE.
The Duchess of Cornwall also met children currently being cared for at the hospital in Al Jalila.
Al Jalila Children’s Hospital, the brainchild of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, aims to deliver care to children at the highest level and on a par with international standards by establishing an official international affiliation agreement with an established world-class institution.
Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust in Liverpool, UK, runs one of Europe’s largest and most established paediatric institutions.
The partnership will deliver the highest quality care in outstanding facilities, with continuous improvements made through medical education, innovation, and clinical research is prominent in both institutions.
“We are delighted to have teamed up with Alder Hey Children’s, a world-class hospital with a long history of providing excellent care for children,” said Princess Haya Bint Al Hussain, wife of Shaikh Mohammad and chairperson of Dubai Healthcare City Authority.
“This partnership allows us to establish a wide range of collaborations which will improve the care of children in the UAE. Our immediate priority to accelerate the establishment of Al Jalila Children’s is enhanced by this collaboration, as Alder Hey, with its extensive knowledge and expertise in running a long established hospital with multiple specialist services, will be able to assist us through sharing of knowledge, specialist best practice and initiatives.”
Having recently opened a brand new world-class hospital facility of comparable size to Al Jalila Children’s, Alder Hey will also be able to provide guidance on how best to deal with teething problems often encountered when opening any new facility. Children requiring very specialised treatments not currently available in the UAE, such as complex neurosurgery and neuro-oncology, will now benefit from being able to access those treatments at Alder Hey Children’s in a seamless manner. Training programmes will be established between the two hospitals and Alder Hey will have access to patients with rare diseases which will support their research programmes.
Sir David Henshaw, chair of Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Increasingly, medicine is global and we wish to be an active participant in the global paediatric community by co-creating new programmes of research, training and education that will benefit our NHS teams in the UK. We highly value the collaboration between our teams.”
