Locals ready to see new hospital open, but weary of traffic

The Midland Metropolitan University Hospital (MMUH) in Smethwick will be one of the biggest hospitals to open in the UK in the past 10 years.

It will house one large accident and emergency department, bringing together the two A&E services currently operating at Birmingham’s City Hospital and Sandwell Hospital in West Bromwich, with 50 per cent of beds across both adult and children’s wards single ensuite rooms.

With the name now emblazoned in the signature orange colour across the front of the building in Smethwick, the organisation is working with construction giants Balfour Beatty to prepare for handover in the summer.

A public trust board meeting with Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust on May 8 set out dates for the next stages of populating and officially opening the hospital.

The building handover is now scheduled to take place on June 1, which includes the trust completing clinical scenario stress testing, installing all equipment and provisions are loaded into the building and staff are safely inducted.

The next stage has been called Patient Day 1, which is set to occur in October and would see Sandwell patient services move first on October 6, then the City patient services will move in five weeks later, subject to operational readiness.

Maternity and neonatal patients will move on November 6 and adult patient services on November 10, while the trust said that MMUH will be fully operational by December.

As the dates move closer, residents and business owners nearby have said that the disruption in the building has been minimal and the hospital itself would be a huge benefit to the area.

Earl Drummond, the owner of Sunrise Bakery, a Caribbean bakery on the A457 overlooking the hospital, said he was pleased to see the work being completed because of the boost to the local economy, but also voiced concern about parking around the hospital.

He said: "There's been minimal impact and disruption around here because the work has gone on for so long and it hasn't bother me in terms of business, but I do have concerns for my business and residents around parking as I do not believe they have sufficient parking available.

"One thing people don't seem to realise is that in Birmingham, we've lost a lot of hospitals in the last 30 to 40 years and while we've kept West Bromwich and City hospitals, we've lost a number of others around the region, so to have one that caters for so many things is a massive boost.

"I think the health benefits are going to be tremendous, but the economic ones will be massive as well as we've lost so many industries around here and so to have this here will benefit so many people."

On a nearby housing estate, one resident, who asked not to be named, said she was pleased to have the hospital on her doorstep if she decided to have another child.

She said: "The hospital building work has been quiet and while the alarm occasionally goes off, it's relatively quiet compared to being in the city centre and the only time I can see it being noisy is when ambulances come in.

"I'm expecting increased traffic, but I think about when I gave birth at City Hospital and the conditions there were horrific and I had an horrific time, whereas I'm quite looking forward, if I ever have another baby in the future, to being able to go there.

"It'll be giving birth in a fresh new hospital with a brand new and easily accessible maternity ward, so it's going to be so much better."

To find out more about the hospital, go to swbh.nhs.uk/our-new-hospital/.