The Midland Metropolitan Hospital in Smethwick – on which construction was halted in January this year after the main contractor, Carillion, went into liquidation – will open in 2022, the Department of Health and Social Care has confirmed, after the Government and the Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust reached an agreement to complete its construction.
This will see the Government fund the remainder of the building work at what will be the first new hospital in England’s second largest urban area since 2010. An acute centre for the care of adults and children that will also offer maternity care and specialised surgery to approximately 750,000 residents, the hospital will incorporate ‘state-of-the-art’ diagnostic equipment, 15 operating theatres, and ‘at least 669 beds’.
The Trust says its completion will ‘unlock resources to invest more in local general practice and mental health services’. While the hospital was originally to be built under a PFI agreement, the contract to complete it will now be awarded via a direct contract with a building contractor.
