Take an early look at £350m Midland Met super hospital

With planning permission for the new Midland Met granted by Sandwell Council in September, and the contract being signed in December, the new hospital will have 670 beds and 15 operation theatres, as well as brand-new diagnostic equipment.

Its A&E will replace emergency care facilities at City Hospital, while Sandwell's General's A&E will become an urgent care centre.

The Midland Met Hospital will be delivered through a Public Private Partnership under a 30-year concession contract using the UK Government's PF2 model.

The new hospital is only one of several major developments planned for Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust, with an expanded intermediate care centre on the City Hospital site and the Sandwell Treatment Centre on the current Sandwell General Hospital site. The Sandwell Treatment Centre will house a large urgent care centre.

The 16-acre site of the hospital is being built on land that currently borders London Street, Heath Street, Grove Lane, Grove Street and Cape Arm Canal in Smethwick.

And Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust has invitedg members of the public to enter their best photographs of the local community and historic health care buildings in a two year competition.

Every month until the opening, a panel of judges, led by Professor Jonathan Berg, well-known exhibiting photographer and author of photo book 'Positively Birmingham', will decide on the best entries that will then go through to the next stage of the competition.

Professor Berg, who is Director of Pathology at the Trust, said: "There is so much to capture as we move from our old hospital sites, especially the historic buildings at Dudley Road. I really look forward to people taking interesting and quirky photos of the buildings that have served us so well over the last 100 years or so."

Entries can be made via the Trust website on http://www.swbh.nhs.uk/capturingthecommunity/