Neonatal Care

New Surgical Neonatal ICU at Alder Hey

In September 2021, planning permission was granted to go ahead with a new state-of-the-art Surgical Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) on the site of Alder Hey. The new unit will feature:

• 22 specialist neonatal cots: 8 ICU cots, 13 HDU cots and 1 special care cot. To reduce movement of infants within the unit, each room will be equipped to provide all levels of neonatal care.
• Family Integrated Care is at the heart of the Unit’s design; there will be 18 family rooms integrated with the cots so that parents can stay in close to their babies, especially mums who are clinically well, but have recently gone through childbirth. Keeping babies and their families together in the earliest stage of life greatly impacts upon a baby’s development, including morbidity and mortality rates, and the length of time babies stay in Hospital.
• Latest technology, including Telehealth Medicine Robots, enabling clinicians to monitor babies remotely. Together, Alder Hey and the Liverpool Women’s Hospital are also developing innovative technologies to enhance the care and experience of babies and families on the Unit. This includes a parent tracking system: a wearable device worn around a parent’s wrist which sends out a signal allowing staff to know where the parent is in case of an emergency.  

Specialist neonatal staff from Liverpool Women’s Hospital will work alongside Alder Hey at the new NICU, ensuring that babies do not need to be transferred back and forth between the two hospitals. 

A dedicated surgical NICU will provide the safest environment possible for our youngest patients and their families at Alder Hey and will further compliment the Liverpool Neonatal Partnership between the two hospital sites. We will also be able to reduce the number of unnecessary and sometimes risky transfers of neonates between Alder Hey and referring centres, significantly improving the experience of patients and families.

On the ground floor of the new building, below new NICU, will be a new EDU, Paediatric Admission Unit and Urgent Treatment Centre.

The facility will cost £19.6m to build, with £3m being provided by Alder Hey Children’s Charity.

Charity funding will provide ‘over and above’ enhancements and equipment for both the clinical space and family areas, elevating it from a facility that provides families with a safe and secure environment for them and their new-borns, to a truly world-class facility that wraps-around families with the most vulnerable babies in the region. To donate go to - https://www.alderheycharity.org/surgical-neonatal-appeal/

The new NICU is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2023.