When the Midland Metropolitan University Hospital opens in Smethwick, it will be the bringing together of teams who provide acute and emergency care. This was a key outcome of a public consultation about the future of local health services and will improve outcomes and safety. Although local clinicians have worked on the plans for many years before signing the long-term contract, those plans were tested against new models of care, including the Keogh Review on emergency care, published in 2013.
The new hospital will offer maternity, children’s and inpatient adult services to half a million people. For a small number of people, neighbouring hospitals such as Walsall Manor, will become their chosen part of the local NHS. However, many people already travel past other hospitals to use City and Sandwell, and we would expect that to continue. Midland Met remains the closest acute hospital to the centre of Birmingham that caters for adults. The new hospital is being built with ‘room to grow’. In addition, we have retained buildings and wards at Sandwell for future development.
Like the rest of the NHS, and local government, we face a very challenging forward future financially. We will be changing what we spend on goods and services, and making changes in our workforce. Cutting the cost of agency staff, the cost of sickness absence, and the cost of staff turnover will all be important. The cost of operating the new hospital, maintaining it, and building it, will be less than five per cent of our overall turnover. The contract for the new hospital was 20 per cent less than the approved business case agreed with the Department of Health and HM Treasury.
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