Milestone reached in journey towards Midland Met Hospital
On Friday 8th May Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust submitted their Appointment Business Case to the Department of Health and HM Treasury following approval by the Trust Board. This marks the latest step in the journey towards development of the new acute hospital on Grove Lane in Smethwick which is set to open in late 2018.
Midland Met brings together emergency and acute healthcare onto a single site, with outpatient services and intermediate care facilities being further developed on the City Hospital and Sandwell General Hospital sites, as well as extended healthcare in community locations.
Once approved the Appointment Business Case allows the Trust to close dialogue, receive and evaluate the final bid and move towards confirming preferred bidder status.
Public consultation begins on 22nd May to inform the planning application that will be sought in the summer from Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council. Local residents, patients and staff are invited to a series of public exhibitions to view and comment on designs for the new hospital that are held across Trust premises and in the community.
Chief Executive, Toby Lewis, said: “We are delighted to reach this important milestone in the long campaign to create a single specialist emergency hospital for half a million people locally. The business case is being issued to Whitehall for approval by the end of June 2015. Our Board’s decision to proceed reflects the strength of our case to improve outcomes for patients, and the distinctive success of our staff in the last year in delivering the first year of plans for improvement. We look forward to hearing back from Government in seven weeks’ time – allowing the final planning application to be submitted to the Local Authority.”
Director of New Hospital Development, Alan Kenny, said: “This is an exciting stage in the development of the Midland Met Hospital. New designs are bringing this state of the art healthcare facility to life. I would urge people to come along to the exhibitions or view the proposals on our website and see what the plans will provide for our community.”
The public exhibitions are taking place at:
- 22nd and 23rd May: City Hospital
- 27th May: Queen’s Square, West Bromwich
- 3rd June: CAP Centre, Smethwick
- 4th June: Rowley Regis Hospital
- 5th and 6th June: Sandwell General Hospital
Proposals will be available to view at swbhs.nhs.uk