Senior leaders from the University and NHS Foundation Trust have struck a deal to advance plans for the site.

The facility would house the University’s medical, dental, nursing and allied health professional students.

Professor Louise Kenny, Executive Pro-Vice-Chancellor for the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences at the University of Liverpool said: “The new Liverpool Academic Health Sciences Campus is a really exciting opportunity.

“New mock wards and mock patient homes, together with virtual reality-assisted learning and other state-of-the-art facilities and IT, would provide an authentic clinical and digital learning teaching environment for larger numbers of students.

“Increasing our capacity to train healthcare professionals and retain them here after training, something that the University has a strong record in doing, is a key part of our work in this area.”

James Sumner, chief executive of Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “The agreement between LUHFT and the University of Liverpool is an incredibly exciting opportunity for the city of Liverpool.

“A new clinical skills and health education facility would significantly improve and modernise the quality of health education for the next generation of health care workers across multiple professions, including medicine, dentistry, nursing and the allied health professions.

“It would also be an important investment in the redevelopment of a key city centre location, sitting alongside two of the newest hospitals in the country and in the heart of the Knowledge Quarter, all of which serves to benefit the people of Liverpool and beyond.

“We are committed to working with University of Liverpool to help support making this new facility a reality in the coming years.”