Plans for £1bn hospital at HS2 interchange site
Proposals backed by UHB NHSTrust and council leadership
HEALTH bosses are planning a major £1 billion hospital to serve patients in Solihull and east Birmingham.
The proposed ‘campus’ hospital will be a centre for research, as well as treating patients.
It will be built at Arden Cross, the proposed development with 3,000 homes near the High Speed Two interchange station in the borough of Solihull, close to the NEC and airport.
Plans have not yet been formally announced but the proposal is understood to be backed by University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Heartlands Hospital and Good Hope Hospital in Birmingham, Solihull Hospital and other services.
It does not have funding yet, though it is hoped that Health Secretary Matt Hancock and Chancellor Rishi Sunak will back the scheme. The Birmingham Post understands that the first phase, planned to be built between 2022 and 2025, would create a diagnostic community hub and short stay facility.
It will provide ambulatory care – emergency care provided to patients in one day, without an overnight stay. It will also provide diagnostic services. This is expected to cost £165 million.
The second stage, to be completed between 2025 and 2028, is to create a
hospital and health campus, at a cost of £850 million.
Between 8,000 and 9,000 staff could be employed on the site by 2030. It is being described as a health and innovation campus.
The aim, as well as providing world-class medical treatment, is to make the hospital a centre for medical research.
Birmingham City Council is helping to draw up the business case for the proposed development.
Council leader Ian Ward said: “Covid-19 has had a huge impact on our hospitals here in Birmingham and the knock-on effect will continue
long into the future, with extended waiting times for treatment, which will exacerbate existing health inequalities.
“That’s why as we begin to recover from the pandemic it is crucial that the Government commits to providing the resources that the NHS needs in our region. I join my Labour colleagues in calling on the Government to choose Arden Cross as the location for a new hospital, giving the people of the West Midlands the access to healthcare that we will need in the coming years.’”
Arden Cross will be a 346-acre development, making it a new small town in the borough of Solihull, with 3,000 homes and six million square feet of new commercial space. It will have the new HS2 Interchange station at its heart, with central London just 38 minutes away.
It will be connected to a new light rail people mover, transporting up to 2,100 passengers per hour between Birmingham Airport, the NEC, the new HS2 station and the existing Birmingham International railway station.
The new town will be designed so that residents do not need cars to get around, with walking and cycling routes, as well as public transport schemes, built in.
The move to create a new hospital was backed by Hodge Hill MP Liam Byrne.
Mr Byrne (Labour) said: “Our NHS has worked miracles during Covid, but the crisis means waiting lists have soared. The Government has promised extra hospitals, so I say let’s have a new hospital for east Birmingham and Solihull.
“This has to be part of a radical new gateway for the east of the city, connecting up communities with new metro lines, retraining thousands of people for local jobs, and building thousands more homes for local residents and key workers. If the Government is serious about levelling up, they should back this ambitious plan in an instant.
“It’s time we got our fair share for the West Midlands and this is an easy decision for the Government to make.”