3.2 The Midland Metropolitan Hospital (Midland Metropolitan) was originally expected to open in October 2018 and is currently expected to open in July 2022, three years and nine months late (see Key facts).10 This is due to:
• 11 months' construction delay known about before Carillion collapsed, due to design problems (paragraphs 1.12 to 1.15);
• seven months' delay while the Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust (the Sandwell Trust) and the Departments - the Department of Health & Social Care, NHS Improvement, the Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) in the Cabinet Office and HM Treasury - attempted to rescue the PFI project (paragraphs 2.7 to 2.12). During this period only basic maintenance work was carried out, initially by contractors funded by The Hospital Company (Sandwell) (the PFI company) and the lenders, then under an 'early works' contract with Balfour Beatty which HM Treasury approved in June 2018;
• 15 months spent re-procuring the new contractor (paragraph 2.29); and
• 12 months' further delay because the contract with Balfour Beatty is expected to take longer than Carillion had promised to complete the hospital.
3.3 The delay in opening Midland Metropolitan means that local people will need to wait longer for the improved services set out in the new hospital's business case and patients will need to use the existing City Hospital and Sandwell Hospital for longer. Most of the buildings on these sites are at least 20 to 30 years old, have few single rooms, and half of the City Hospital was built before the foundation of the NHS in 1948. They have high maintenance costs. Some patients need to make long journeys between different hospital departments or between the two sites, a journey of up to 30 minutes.
3.4 The delay to the opening of Midland Metropolitan will also affect the wider plan to redesign health services in Birmingham, involving five NHS bodies and two local authorities. Midland Metropolitan is intended to provide acute hospital services on a single site while community and home-based services across Birmingham will be expanded. The new hospital is expected to improve the Trust's ability to recruit and retain staff because of its modern, purpose-built facilities.
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10 The expectation at Final Business Case when the PFI was signed.