One of the largest and busiest paediatric emergency care centres in the UK.
Our sickest and most vulnerable patients are often carried into our Emergency Department by parents and carers, rather than being brought to us by ambulance. For these families, every second is extremely raw and emotionally charged, so swift and timely care is essential to ensure the very best outcomes for our young patients.
With continued unprecedented demand on GPs and other primary healthcare services across the country, Alder Hey’s Emergency Department is now under more pressure than ever. Our current department was designed to look after around 150 attendances daily, however during peak winter months, attendances can be as high as 300. A staggering 70% of attendances are for conditions that do not require acute emergency care in hospital.
Alder Hey Children’s Charity is appealing for funds to help create an innovative Same Day Emergency Care Centre which will open at the end of 2025. Our new centre will bring together worldclass facilities and a transformative approach to emergency treatment and care. This will ensure that children are seen in the right place, at the right time, by the right clinician, and crucially that families can return safely home as soon as possible.
To ensure that children with the most urgent care needs receive priority support, our new centre will allow healthcare professionals working out in the community to refer their patients directly to us for a pre-booked appointment slot. This will provide peace of mind for our families, drastically reducing the amount of time they need to spend in hospital.
Our new Same Day Emergency Care Centre will be unrivalled in terms of its facilities, capability, and the way it delivers its services, creating a new gold standard for emergency care nationally.
Our new Same Day Emergency Care Centre will deliver the following key benefits:
- For children – By facilitating new and improved models of patient care, we will be able to ensure the very best outcomes for our sickest and most vulnerable children.
- For families – By providing direct access to the ‘right team, first time’ we will reduce waiting times and anxiety for families, ensuring that they can return home safely and confidently with their children.
- For the future – By creating a ‘one stop shop’ model of care, we will increase learning and collaboration opportunities for staff, ensuring that Alder Hey remains at the forefront of emergency care.
The Same Day Emergency Care Centre is scheduled for completion in late 2025.
Zac’s Story
Zac has been one of the many young patients who have successfully accessed our same day emergency care pilot. He was referred directly to us as he had been feeling under the weather. After receiving tests, Zac was quickly diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. Zac’s mum Jane described the impact that being able to access same day care had on their family:
“As you can imagine it was quite a shock when the GP told us that Zac would have to go to Alder Hey and be seen by the doctors there. At that moment you don’t know what to think and the last thing you need is to sit in A&E for hours on end with an upset and distressed child.
“Having a personal appointment slot is a wonderful feature, as our son was really upset and so being able to go straight through as well as the expert care and facilities on offer helped to calm him and us down and make sure that we quickly got the care he needed.
It really makes the world of difference and helps to make a stressful situation that little bit more manageable. Having access to a service like this helped to deal with the shock of a diagnosis when the whole family were already upset, so being able to be comfortable and receive quick and quality care was vital.”