£442 million plan to revamp two major West Midlands hospitals unveiled
A £442 million plan to completely revamp two major West Midlands hospitals has been unveiled.
‘The Big Build’ would see two new hospital blocks built, one at the Birmingham Children’s Hospital site in the city centre and the other at the Birmingham Women’s Hospital in Edgbaston.
The trust which runs the two hospitals says both are well beyond their natural operational life and its "make do and mend" approach and the growing maintenance bill makes an investment crucial for the future of its services.
The £442 million project would provide a boost to the local economy as it looks to recover from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Work could begin by 2023 with doors opening in 2025, subject to funding approval.
Plans to fund the estimated costs for ‘The Big Build’ include a combination of money generated from the sale of vacated land at the Steelhouse Lane site in the city centre, supported by national funding and fundraising support through the trust’s charity.
David Melbourne, the acting chief executive of Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust which is behind the plans, said doing nothing was not an option.
He said: “We are proud of the amazing care our colleagues provide on a daily basis but they do that in an estate that is well beyond its operational life.
“Our children and young persons services are being delivered on a site opened in 1897 and our Women’s Hospital is more than 50 years old.
“Our teams have done a great job in recent years with a make do and mend approach but the cost of that in terms of annual maintenance is growing and is not sustainable. These buildings are well past their natural life and are not suitable to providing the spaces and facilities we need for modern care.
“Our Big Build proposal will provide value for money and unlock huge potential for the development of our existing and new services; opening the door to a new wave of research and innovation tapping into the many world class individuals we are lucky to call colleagues.”
The trust has conducted a review of the options and agreed earlier in the year to take forward a plan to build two new hospital buildings across the two main sites, demolishing the former dental hospital building at its children’s hospital and the Norton Court block at the women’s hospital and replacing them both with new buildings.
The programme would create more operating theatres, inpatient beds, cutting edge diagnostics and imaging technologies, a new home for the trust’s Paediatric Emergency Department and more birthing rooms.
It would provide space to support innovation and partnership work with partners and industry leaders.
The project would also allow the refurbishment of existing spaces once the new buildings are operational.
'Imperative'
A plan to carry out initial enabling works, including the demolition of the two vacant buildings, and the appointment of key partners to progress the proposals has been agreed by the trust board.
Work will now begin on an outline business case and a programme of engagement to work with partners across the Birmingham and Solihull health economy, a wide variety of health professionals, patients and the public to help shape the details of the proposals.
Professor Sir Bruce Keogh, the trust’s chairman, a former Birmingham surgeon and national medical director for the NHS, said: “The children’s hospital is now 123 years old, the infrastructure is crumbling, the wards are cramped and the Victorian architecture, while beautiful from the outside, is simply not fit for the practice of current complex medicine, let alone fit for a future of increasing complexity.
“Similarly, the women’s hospital is struggling to function at 30 per cent above the capacity for which it was designed 60 years ago.
“Despite the outdated estate our clinicians continue to provide essential regional and national highly specialist services and conduct leading edge research.
"This is simply unsustainable in the current set of buildings given the very real implications of evolving medical science and technology for advanced diagnostics and medical therapies.
“The Big Build is not just an investment in buildings. It will be an investment in the future quality of care our organisation can offer to the women and children of Birmingham and beyond.
"It is imperative we all unite behind the massive and exciting opportunity presented by The Big Build.”
