Cambridge Children’s Hospital will redefine how we care for children and young people. It will unite mental and physical healthcare with world-leading life sciences research in a whole new way, treating mind and body as one.
A Whole New Way: Shaping the future of children's healthcare
Cambridge Children’s Hospital will care for the Whole Child — their health and well-being, their educational needs and their family.
Our new hospital will transform care for children and young people across the East of England. By improving access to specialist services and delivering digitally enabled care closer to home within the community, it will reduce time away from school and family life.
It will use the latest advances in genomic medicine to prevent disease before it happens and to treat illness earlier and more precisely — giving every child the best possible start in life.
Bringing together clinical excellence from two NHS Trusts with world-leading research from the University of Cambridge, the hospital will be based at the heart of the Cambridge Biomedical Campus.
Our vision has four pillars:
The Whole Child
We will treat the whole child, mind and body, as one.
Cambridge Children’s Hospital is breaking down the divide between mental and physical health, delivering integrated care under one roof.
Our new hospital will give mental health the same attention and focus as physical health; by providing universal beds for those with complex physical and mental health needs we will offer a radical new model of one-stop-shop healthcare that can be replicated nationally and internationally.
An in-hospital school and provision of care closer to home will help keep children in school and parents in work, ensuring every child and adult reaches their potential.
The Whole Community
We will bring specialist care closer to home.
We are delivering a new specialist Children’s Hospital in the only region without one.
Children and families across the East of England will have better, more equitable access to the care they need — with less time away from school, home and community.
Cambridge Children’s Hospital will be an anchor institution, supporting providers across the East of England to deliver all elements of our vision for the region’s children and young people, with a focus on the wellbeing of our staff.
The new hospital will help tackle unequal access to services and participation in research across the region. Our ambition is for every child who would benefit, to participate in research/clinical trials. Anything developed here will be rolled out across the NHS.
The Whole Future
We will harness the strength of Cambridge’s research ecosystem.
We will work collaboratively across disciplines, professions, and institutions, harnessing the expertise of two NHS Trusts with cutting-edge research from the University of Cambridge to deliver real-world results.
By bringing together researchers and clinicians across Cambridge, we will develop new approaches, driven by life sciences research and genomic medicine, to treat illness earlier and more precisely.
Cambridge Children's Hospital will house a world-leading centre for research, one with regional, national and international reach. Our research centres will lead national efforts to integrate whole genome sequencing into neonatal care, will address the urgent challenge of adolescent mental illness, and will introduce personalised therapies and models of care for prevention and intervention, including in diabetes and obesity.
Through the integration of mental and physical health with translational research, our advocacy for young people, and our links with public health, Cambridge Children’s Hospital will not only impact on a child's future health, but on their whole future.
The Whole Picture
We will build a new model of children’s healthcare and a healthier future for our young people.
This is more than a hospital — by collaborating with partners on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus and leading advances in data, digital healthcare and AI we will become a national and international exemplar of how care, science and innovation can come together to promote prevention, improve health outcomes and power growth.
We will leverage the power of AI, virtual reality and digital technology, to offer safer, smarter care closer to home; by unlocking and using data effectively, we will drive quality improvement.
The use of system-wide data and digital innovation will support transitions between hospital and community, ensuring care is delivered where it is most effective and least disruptive for families.