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During an official visit to the UAE, the Duchess of Cornwall toured the recently opened Al Jalila Children's Specialty Hospital in Dubai today, where an agreement, witnessed by the Duchess, was signed between Al Jalila Children's, the first specialised paediatric hospital in the UAE, and Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust in Liverpool, UK, which runs one of Europe's largest and most established paediatric institutions.
Al Jalila Children's, brainchild of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed 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 par with international standards by establishing an official international affiliation agreement with an established world-class institution. Following a comprehensive search and after discussions with many reputed institutions, Alder Hey was identified as the ideal partner for affiliation with Al Jalila Children's. The two organisations have the shared vision and capability of creating a healthier future for children and young people worldwide. The desire to 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 HRH Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein, 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. We see this as the start of a long-term sharing of knowledge and resources agreement that will improve clinical services, enhance education and research not just for children in the UAE but worldwide. By combining our philanthropic efforts, the UK and UAE can further support research that will have far reaching benefits."
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. Furthermore, as part of this collaboration, Al Jalila Children's will aim to establish dedicated education programmes for health professionals, providing valuable training that will develop the next generation of paediatric specialists and services in the UAE. As our partner, Alder Hey will have access to a variety of patients with rare diseases which will support their research programs, thus creating the potential for future joint treatment programs.
Sir David Henshaw, Chair of Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust commented, "This collaboration is of great mutual benefit to Alder Hey and Al Jalila. We feel a strong obligation to share our experience in order to grow the availability of specialist health services that children need all around the world. 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."
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