Alder Hey’s new MediCinema opens with huge Moana 2 premiere
Skiddle recently took a well-awaited visit to their charity partner, Alder Hey Children's Hospital. With the debut of their new MediCinema, check out how the visit went and all the amazing things Alder Hey has in store for 2025
Date published: 2nd Dec 2024
In light of the wonderful news that Alder Hey has now opened a new MediCinema, Skiddle went down to see the finished results as well as how Alder Hey has been growing since our last visit. The MediCinema is the first in a standalone paediatric hospital in the UK and the first Cinema of its kind in the Northwest of England, offering children a place for escapism and fun.
Alder Hey Children's Hospital is one of Europe's biggest and busiest children’s hospitals that cares about not just the health but also the progression of its patients, which is evident through its extensive charity work. Known as one of the biggest children's hospitals in the UK, providing care for almost 450,000 children and young people, with the help of donations, Alder Hey Children’s Charity is committed to going above and beyond what is available on our hard-working NHS. From ward musicians and the incredible Arts for Health programme to the latest distraction technology and innovation hub, Alder Hey strive to provide the best patient experience possible.
Over the past year, Skiddle has been in partnership with Alder Hey Children’s Charity to help raise money for the hospital to gain new facilities and make the children's journey in the hospital easier. Through each ticket purchase, your donations as customers have helped Skiddle raise an incredible £138,823.90, which has supported multiple campaigns over the past two years, including the MediCinema.
With 29 seats, and plenty of space to incorporate 3 beds, 4 wheelchairs, and 2 reclining chairs. The MediCinema opened with a huge premiere on Sunday 24th November with an exclusive screening of Moana 2; ahead of its theatrical release. Children and parents were able to not only view the film but also take pictures with a Disney character, making it a special day to remember for many.
The partnership between Alder Hey Children’s Charity and Skiddle has been highly successful, and it doesn’t just stop at the MediCinema. Through Skiddle’s recent visits to Alder Hey, we were also able to see that your donations have helped support a new Surgical Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, which will be designed to support the specific needs of neonatal families, creating a facility that goes above and beyond the core NHS provision.
This is a huge project for Alder Hey Children’s Charity going into 2025, and will be the first unit of its kind in the UK, dedicated to providing highly specialised care and support to their neonatal families. They aim to benefit an average of 150 babies each year by eliminating ambulance transfers between Alder Hey and local hospitals that cannot perform Neonatal surgery.
Alder Hey and Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust are developing progressive technologies to enhance the care of babies and the experience of families in the unit. With the plan to have the unit finished at the end of 2025, this area of Alder Hey will be considered a ‘home from home’, and will offer a new, brighter future for how neonatal care is handled.
Skiddle is also very pleased to mention that in 2025, they will be supporting the Art for Health Programme at Alder Hey. Since 2006, this youth-led programme has proudly catered to its patients' needs with its stimulating range of creative and therapeutic activities for children across their wards, waiting areas, and in the community.
Year after year, the programme has grown as Alder Hey Children’s Charity continues to work with 10,000 children and young people to feel happy and safe throughout their duration at Alder Hey. Positioned to help all patients reach their full potential and thrive in the future, the programme has a mass of features, including music, dance, digital art, performance, storytelling, film, animation, and puppetry.
Being the unique place that Alder Hey is, it also has its own Innovation Centre, which is a massive part of the development stages of treatment, bringing together clinical problems that have come from the wards and theatre.
Through innovation and extensive research, Alder Hey’s amazing team of clinicians and innovation consultants who are experts in their fields - whether that be programmers, AI leads, or data scientists - are constantly looking for solutions that prioritise the needs of patients. The Innovation Centre is a huge part of the Alder Hey legacy, and with its ethos ‘Today’s Child, Tomorrow’s Healthier Adult’ it seeks to focus on improving patient experience and the efficiency of one of the largest and busiest children's hospitals in the UK.
Treating more than 12,000 children a day, there is a duty within to make the system and treatment work better but also focus on improving the experience of families and children. Having the ability to manage their appointments online, monitor stats online and more enforces Alder Hey’s driving mission that the child always comes first.
Within the past 10 years, Alder Hey has worked hard to become one of the leading children’s hospitals in the UK and continues to thrive with every child and young person in mind. The future holds so much for both Alder Hey Children’s Charity and Skiddle, and we’re very excited to see not just the progression of the hospital but patients, too. We are proud to be working with Alder Hey and sharing the importance of your donations, and we cannot wait to see how Alder Hey continues to develop and grow in 2025.
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