Alder Hey Innovation Centre has an open innovation portal focused on sourcing innovative solutions, to solve current healthcare challenges. With the current COVID 19 priorities we are collaborating with the Innovation Agency and Cheshire and Merseyside Health and Care Partnership’s COVID-19 Supply Response Team (CSR Team) to provide an alternative supplies and sourcing service to the region. The portal will allow all needs from local Trusts and all alternative supplier solutions to be directed, collated and assessed in one place in a consistent manner and matched with the local needs and relevant contacts.
Our plan for the future is to expand the portal in a needs and technical driven way. As we step away from sourcing alternative PPE supplies, we will shift more towards our technical requests. This will involve displaying Alder Hey’s current needs on the portal and inviting external companies to offer a solution to this problem. As this is ongoing, we hope to develop further and offer this service beyond Alder Hey. We are hoping to expand the offer and use of the portal to the wider region and allowing more hospitals and staff to benefit from this opportunity.
