Engagement events & activities (public, patients and community)

The MMUH Near Neighbours group was established in February 2023 to keep local residents, businesses, and community, voluntary and faith-based organisations within a mile of the new Midland Metropolitan University Hospital (MMUH) informed, involved and able to influence local developments. Local people had watched the hospital take shape over several years, and with the opening planned for 2024, the group provided an important forum to share updates, introduce the hospital’s executive and construction teams, and enable people to ask questions, raise concerns and share their views.

Discussions at MMUH Near Neighbours meetings have mainly focused on parking, travel and access, but the group has also created opportunities for local residents to get involved in wider community activities linked to the hospital. As the meetings progressed, representatives from Transport for West Midlands and Sandwell and Birmingham Councils joined the group, working alongside residents to address challenges and help improve the local area.

Meetings held to date before and after the opening of MMUH:

• Monday 13th October from 1:30–3pm at CAP Centre
• Thursday 16th October from 5:30–7pm at CAP Centre
• Wednesday 30th April 2025 from 5:30-6:30pm at CAP Centre
• Thursday 21st November 2024 from 10- 11:30am at CAP Centre
• Monday 23^rd September 2024 at 12.30pm at Midland Metropolitan University Hospital
• Thursday 30th November 2023, 1-2:30pm, CAP Centre
• Monday 20th November 2023, 6:30-8pm at George Dixon Academy
• Friday 3 March 2023 from 2pm – 3:30pm via MS Teams
• Monday 27 February 2023 from 10:30am to 12pm at CAP Centre
• Wednesday 22 February 2023 from 6:30pm to 8pm at George Dixon Academy

The Trust has been actively engaging with representatives from Pocklington’s (a charity supporting people with visual impairment) since March to identify and address the challenges that people with visual impairments may face when visiting Trust sites. Together, we have assessed Midland Met and Sandwell Health Campus, with feedback shared through the Patient Experience Team and Wayfinding Group to inform ongoing improvements. Engagement with Pocklington’s continues.

Youth Space meetings take place every last Tuesday of the month from 6.15pm to 8pm at Sandwell Hospital’s Education Centre, Hallam Street, West Bromwich B71 4HJ.

For more information about Youth Space click here.

October 2025

At this month’s session is packed with exciting guests and activities including Amy Lloyd, Governance Technician and Stephen Amoah-Nyako, Sickle Cell Specialist Pharmacist, who will share their inspiring career journeys within pharmacy. Anthea Renshaw, Heritage Officer from Your City and Metropolitan Hospitals Charity, will lead creative arts activities and talk about the role of arts and heritage at the new hospital, as well as youth volunteering opportunities at MMUH. And, the long-awaited election for the first Youth Space Chair and Vice Chair will be taking place – don’t miss your chance to vote!

What Happens at a Youth Space meeting

Our meetings combine social time, learning, and opportunities to influence real change. Here is what usually happens at each session.

• Before the meeting – doors open 45 minutes before the meeting starts. This is a chance to socialise, enjoy some pizza and get to know other members in a relaxed setting.
• Registration and housekeeping – members sign in and updates or practical information for the session are given.
• Ice Breaker – each meeting includes an ice breaker activity to help new members feel welcome and to get everyone talking.
• “Hello, My Name Is…” – in this section, members meet professionals working across the Trust and the NHS. These may include people in roles such as Head of Security and Portering, Nursing Associate, Consultant Geriatrician, Physiotherapist, Chief Executive or Chairperson. It is a great opportunity to learn about different careers in healthcare and be inspired by people making a difference.
• Guest Speaker – guest speakers from different teams and organisations are regularly invited to get views from young people on their projects. For example, the West Midlands Children’s Network recently visited to talk about Martha’s Rule and learn Youth Space members knew about it, explore how young people would raise a concern in a hospital and identify barriers to using Martha’s Rule.
• Sessions like this, ensure that young people’s ideas directly influence how the NHS supports patients and families.

• Future Opportunities – members are also offered the chance to take part in workshops, volunteering, and service improvement activities. This might include helping with hospital inspections using the 15 Step Challenge Toolkit or joining projects to improve care for young patients.
• These opportunities help members build confidence, learn new skills, and make a positive difference.

The Black Country Provider Collaborative (BCPC), comprising four partner NHS trusts, carried out a six week engagement programme to gather feedback from patients, the public, and stakeholders on proposals for elective care services. The engagement sought views on BCPC’s plans to create an elective surgical hub at Sandwell Health Campus for general surgery, gynaecology and orthopaedics for Sandwell and Dudley residents, and a similar hub offering orthopaedic procedures for people in the north of the Black Country. BCPC also asked local residents how the space freed up in the four hospitals by relocating services could be used, exploring options for bringing some services together and creating new specialist services that people currently travel outside the area to access. The engagement included patient and public surveys, online focus groups, stakeholder interviews and sessions run by community and voluntary organisations, with 690 individuals responding.

Click here to read the public involvement exercise.

The outputs of the public involvement exercise will now be used to inform future plans in elective care including the development of our Elective Hub at Sandwell Health Campus.

The engagement team ran a ten-week engagement exercise from 6 August, focusing on proposed changes to the opening times for the Urgent Treatment Centre (UTC) at Sandwell Health Campus and raising awareness of urgent and emergency care services. The aim was to inform local communities about the revised UTC hours (changing from 7am–1am to 8am–11pm), the appropriate use of urgent and emergency care, and how to access services such as NHS 111. Over 400 people were engaged through activities in towns, high-footfall areas, community venues, and targeted outreach sessions, including one with a deaf community group and at the UTC itself. This included 218 survey responses. Many participants had been unaware that Sandwell Health Campus still had a UTC, thinking it had moved to the new hospital. People appreciated being informed about the changes, how to access care and where to go for help outside normal hours.

Click her for more information visit about Urgent Treatment Centres.

Click here to read the draft summary report.

The Improving the Future of AHP Services session, held on 13 August 2025 at the Yemeni Centre, brought together 26 attendees—patients, young people, and community representatives—to discuss the role and future of Allied Health Professionals (AHPs). Led by Paul McArdle from Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust and organised by the Engagement Team, who developed the documentation and designed the day’s activities, the workshop introduced the national AHP Strategy for England (2022–2027) alongside local priorities around leadership, digital transformation, and co-production. Through interactive exercises, participants explored comfort with digital healthcare tools, access to AHP services, self-care practices, and what matters most in receiving support. Key themes highlighted the need for accessible, person-centred care, better digital support and education, improved communication, and maintaining face-to-face options. Feedback from the session will help shape local AHP priorities and ensure community voices inform future service development.

Click here to read the draft summary report.

A questionnaire was distributed to young people, secondary schools and colleges to help determine the preferred food offering for the Learning Campus, located on the Midland Metropolitan University Hospital (MMUH) Campus in Smethwick. The campus will accommodate up to 250 students aged 16–21. 30 people responded and their feedback will help to procure catering facilities.

The Trust held an interactive workshop on Wednesday 4 June 2025 from 10am to 12pm at Yemeni Community Association, Greets Green Access Centre, Tildasley Street, West Bromwich, B70 9SJ.(Registration from 9.30am). The event was well attended, with 31 participants in total. This included 27 individuals comprising patients, local residents, and representatives from community organisations, as well as four members of staff. The audience represented a broad age range, from young people to older generations, highlighting the wide-reaching appeal and relevance of improving local engagement, hospital services and getting involved.

Click here to read the draft summary report.

The Trust has also been engaging with staff across the organisation to gather feedback and insights on what good patient care and experience looks like. This feedback is being collated and will be published here soon. Feedback will help shape the new Patient Experience and Public Involvement Strategy.

A community survey about Midland Met was conducted during January 2025 to March 2025, to coincide with the 100 days of opening, with a focus on gathering insight into the awareness and usage of Midland Met and Urgent Treatment Centre (UTC) services since the new hospital opened. The aim of the survey was to identify areas of information and education for local communities, to support them to use the right services, as well as guiding our local residents to choose the appropriate healthcare service, to help ease non-life threatening pressure at the MMUH emergency department. 

 In total, 469 members of our local communities responded to the survey, of this, 88 responses were gathered through the Midland Metropolitan University Hospital Ambassadors working in the West Birmingham and Sandwell localities who engaged directly in communities: 

• Online – 381
• West Birmingham (Flourish) – 33
• Sandwell (Sandwell CIC) – 55

General UTC feedback

When looking at public awareness, many members of our local communities remain unaware that UTCs at Sandwell Health Campus and the Summerfield UTC are still operational. Regardless, the survey responses indicated general willingness among community members to use both Sandwell UTC and Summerfield UTCs for non-life-threatening issues.

Most people were unaware that these centres were still open and available for non-life-threatening emergencies. However, once informed, a significant number said they would consider using them. This suggests that lack of awareness, rather than unwillingness, is the main barrier to people using these services. Better communication about available UTCs could help reduce pressure on A&E departments by directing patients to more suitable care.

Feedback from various parts of the survey has been shared with the Trust to support improvements where possible.

The Trust has actively engaged with SCAT patients before and after the move to Midland Met, to gather feedback, share updates and shape service improvements. Recent sessions held on 17 July 2024, 28 October 2024 and 13 February 2025 explored patient experiences and priorities. The February session focused on what worked well and what could be improved at Midland Met, including the key priorities for SCAT pathways over the next 6–12 months and enhancements to the ED pathway. Feedback from these sessions continues to guide improvements.

The Trust transformed a disused patient transport van into a rolling billboard for the new Midland Metropolitan University Hospital and visited our local communities to let them know what services would remain at Sandwell and City Hospitals (now renamed Sandwell and City Health Campuses) and what services transferred to Midland Met. The bus visited local libraries, family hubs, community groups and Trust sites to speak to local people, patients and staff.

To ensure the right services were in the correct place ahead of the opening of Midland Metropolitan University Hospital, the Trust proposed changes to the way some care was delivered across its sites.

The Trust continued to focus on stroke services and produced a document outlining the proposed changes it wished to discuss with stroke survivors, their carers and loved ones, and other interested parties across Sandwell and West Birmingham.

The Trust proposed three different ways of caring for these patients, which were detailed in the report available via the Stroke Service Publication leaflet.

As part of engagement around the service, the Trust held a workshop at the YMCA West Bromwich, where feedback was gathered from the community about the improvements made so far.

• Two bereavement workshop have been held at the Brasshouse Community Centre, where friends and family members of loved ones lost under the care of our Trust told us about their experiences with our bereavement services and what they thought needed improving. One session was held in October 2023 and another in October 2025 post the new hospital opening.

• A Food and Nutrition in hospital settings session was held at Sandwell Hospital, with discussions around what improvements could be made.

• A Focus on Frailty event took place at Yemeni Community Association in Sandwell. The current and new frailty pathways for the Midland Metropolitan University Hospital were discussed and vital feedback was gathered from staff, patients, carers and community organisations.

• A Carers Workshop took place at the Brasshouse Community Centre. Carers shared their experiences and talked about how we could work together to improve the services we provide, as well as how the Trust could support them in the process.

To ensure we have the right services in the correct place ahead of the opening of Midland Metropolitan University Hospital, we are proposing to make changes to the way we deliver some of the care across the Trust.

We are continuing our focus on stroke and have produced a document that outlines the proposed changes we wish to discuss with stroke survivors, their carers and loved ones and other interested parties across Sandwell and West Birmingham.

We are proposing three different ways in which we care for these patients which are detailed in the report accessed via this link: Stroke Service Publication leaflet.