Balfour Beatty’s Midland Metropolitan University Hospital project has been given the go-ahead to open on October 6.

The Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust board green-lighted the opening date of the site, which was hit by the collapse of contractor Carillion in 2018.

The project, which forms part of the overall New Hospital Programme, has seen Balfour Beatty construct a new nine-floor, state-of-the-art hospital building - the largest acute care hospital in the region, with approximately 700 beds for inpatients.

The site has a gross internal floor area of approximately 85,924m² and once open in the autumn, will serve more than half a million people with facilities for acute and emergency care as well as paediatric, maternity and inpatient adult care.

In addition, the site will also be home to a new £18m learning campus being largely funded from Towns Fund investment, set to open in 2025.

This facility will offer further and higher education courses as well as apprenticeship opportunities and employment within the new hospital.

The hospital project was originally started by Carillion, which collapsed in 2018.

Balfour Beatty was awarded the £267m Midland Metropolitan Hospital contract in December 2019 by Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust.

It had already been appointed to deliver the early works contract in 2018.

Lindsay McGibbon, managing director of Balfour Beatty’s Regional Buildings business said: “This is a momentous moment for everyone at Balfour Beatty and the Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust.

“Achieving this milestone was only made possible thanks to years of hard work and dedication from our people, who deserve a special mention for safely and successfully delivering this long-awaited, transformative hospital which will deliver significant benefits for the local community for years to come.”

Richard Beeken, chief executive of Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust, added: “This is truly a key moment for our patients, people, and population as we know that this winter, we will be delivering emergency care in an environment which exceeds expectations and delivers benefits in wellbeing both for patients and our staff.

“Today our board carefully considered extensive information about all aspects of the programme to deliver the new hospital safely. We are assured of the clinical safety, patient, and staff experience case for opening and transferring patients.

“These key milestones mark the final steps in our journey towards opening the Midland Metropolitan University Hospital which is poised to become the centre of acute and emergency care at our trust.”