Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council, in England’s West Midlands, has granted planning consent for the new Midland Metropolitan hospital.
The hospital is to be built by Carillion, the UK developer, under a 30-year concession contract as part of the Private Finance 2 (PF2) delivery model. PF2 was introduced in 2012 as an updated version of the public-private partnership (PPP) designed to deliver better value-for-money for the public.
Carillion, through joint venture the Hospital Company, was selected as preferred bidder for the project by the Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust last month.
The firm has said it expects to invest £16 million (€22 million; $24 million) of equity into the project, which will be built by Carillion at a capital cost of £297 million. Construction is due to begin in early 2016 with completion scheduled for mid-2018 and the opening of the hospital in late 2018.
The state-of-the-art facility will have: around 670 beds; 15 operating theatre suites; a fully enclosed garden; a car park within the building on the ground and first floors; and a full separation of clinical activities from public and non-clinical services.