5th October 2015

Planning success featured on BBC website

'Plans for a new £350m hospital in the West Midlands have been approved.

The Midland Metropolitan Hospital, in Smethwick, will house emergency, maternity and acute services, with 670 beds and 15 operating theatres.

The A&E unit will replace facilities at Birmingham's City Hospital, Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust said.

Chancellor George Osborne gave governmental approval last year and now Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council has passed the plans.

The building is being funded by both the public and private sector through a private finance deal.Outpatient services, intermediate care facilities and planned surgery will take place at City Hospital and Sandwell General Hospital sites, the trust said.

Trust chairman Richard Samuda said: "This is yet another exciting step in the decade-long campaign to bring 21st Century hospital care to local residents and create an environment that staff can be proud to work within.

"This is the last-but-one step, with the trust now able to proceed to try and sign a contract, with our preferred supplier.

"We aim to do that before January 2016."

The hospital is expected to open in 2018.'

BBC news website Birmingham and Black Country Region

To view the story on-line click here http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-34...

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