George Osborne has announced approval for a £353m new acute hospital in Smethwick, to be funded by both the public and private sector through a Private Finance 2 deal.
The announcement came on 14 July as the Chancellor visited Rowley Regis Hospital – part of Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust – where he met senior executives to hear how they are moving care closer to the community and ensuring the continued delivery of high quality acute services.
The new Midland Metropolitan Hospital will bring together acute services on to one site, ‘promoting better patient safety and a patient experience, while ensuring the best value for money for the taxpayer’. To be built on a 16.76 acre brownfield site, it is expected to have around 670 beds, 13 operating theatres, 12 maternity delivery suites, six birthing centres, and full diagnostic facilities. Likely (the Trust says) ‘to be about seven storeys’ high, and to provide around 80,600 m2 of hospital space, it is expected to provide capacity for approximately 81,455 inpatients and 115,045 outpatients annually.
The Chancellor said: “This ambitious package will ensure that patients across the West Midlands continue to benefit from access to world-class acute treatment and cutting-edge facilities. It is because of the difficult decisions we have taken as a government that we have been able to protect healthcare spending, and announce new facilities like the Midland Metropolitan Hospital.”
Richard Samuda, the Trust’s chairman, said: “This is a vote of confidence in 7,500 staff at the Trust. The Chancellor’s announcement reinforces our strategy of local care for long-term conditions, and a single specialist acute centre at the Midland Met.”
Construction is expected to commence in 2016, and to be completed by 2018-19. The Trust will begin seeking a ‘PF2 partner’ next year.
