The new Midland Metropolitan University Hospital successfully opened in October 2024 and is one of the largest hospitals to open in England in the last decade, serving Birmingham, England’s second largest city. It has been much more than a construction project and this session will explore the wide-ranging shifts it has enabled, including transforming the clinical model, digital innovations and regeneration benefits. The programme hashtag #MoreThanAHospital is intentional.

The innovative clinical model is designed around a shift from hospital-based care to community, with new patient pathways avoiding thousands of unnecessary hospital admissions a year. Supported by a new seven-day workforce model, clinicians are bucking the national trend in admission avoidance and length of stay including those related to frailty and care home patient pathways. An acute medical response in the community is delivering benefits including a 30 per cent reduction in acute admissions, a reduction in mortality as well as a reduced 30-day readmission rate.

As well as being a catalyst for improved patient and staff experience, regeneration benefits include increased local employment though widening participation and collaboration with education partners, a £17.9 million investment in a Learning Campus to support careers for local people and a full-staffing plan, as well as the hospital being an enabler to increase local housing and improve transport and connectivity.