Plan for £380m hospital go-ahead
A new super hospital catering for almost 100,000 inpatients looks set to be built in the Black Country after plans for the £380 million scheme were given the go-ahead.
A new super hospital catering for almost 100,000 inpatients looks set to be built in the Black Country after plans for the £380 million scheme were given the go-ahead.
The 723-bed hospital at Grove Lane in Smethwick will replace some services at Sandwell Hospital in West Bromwich and City Hospital on the Smethwick/Birmingham border.
However, parts of the City and Sandwell Hospital sites will be kept as community hospitals. The plans for the scheme went before Sandwell Council's planning committee last night where they were given unanimous approval.
It means the scheme can go ahead in principle but health chiefs at Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust will have to go back to planners with more details as the project progresses.
The 16.8 acre site at the former GKN factory will be transformed into a new acute hospital catering for 98,000 inpatients and 178,000 outpatients.
The project would provide employment for around 4,000 people, and the hospital's location on a brownfield site will make it unique in the whole of the UK.
The scheme will now go out to tender, before the hospital's expected completion in 2015.
