Patients and staff across Birmingham and Solihull will benefit from new facilities as a result of funding announced by the Department for Health and Social Care.

Heartlands Hospital, part of University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust will receive £97.1 million to complete the Ambulatory Care and Diagnostics Centre – a four-storey building that will house a range of services, including outpatients, endoscopy, day case surgery and imaging, and will care for nearly half a million patients each year.

The four-storey building next to the main entrance will cover a 16,000m2 footprint, with each floor being around 3,600m2 – approximately half the size of Wembley Stadium’s pitch.

Built to the highest construction and environmental standards, ACAD will make use of sustainable features to reduce its carbon footprint.

In addition to bringing jobs to the local area and providing local investment opportunities, ACAD will provide a purpose-built working environment for staff and state-of-the-art facilities for patients.

Jonathan Brotherton, Chief Operating Officer at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB) which runs Heartlands Hospital, said:

“This investment is an exciting step forward for the services we are able to provide to the people of Birmingham and Solihull.

“Receiving the positive confirmation of funding today is fantastic news for local people and is the result of three years of hard work and careful planning.

“The Ambulatory Care and Diagnostic centre (ACAD) will boost the Trust’s capacity to meet the growing and changing healthcare requirements of local people, with state-of-the-art facilities providing services including day case surgery, endoscopy, interventional radiology, outpatient appointments and imaging on the Heartlands Hospital site, seeing up to 1,500 patients per day.

“ACAD will also deliver new ways of working to streamline patient pathways - maximising efficiency - all whilst delivering the best possible care and high-quality specialist services for half-a-million patients every year.”

Three other hospitals in the wider region will also benefit from funding announced:  United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust will receive £21.3 million to improve patient flow in Boston by developing urgent and emergency care zones in A&E,  Wye Valley NHS Trust will receive £23.6 million to provide new hospital wards in Hereford, providing 72 beds and University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust will receive £17.6 million to create three new modern wards to improve capacity and patient flow in Stoke, delivering approximately 84 beds for this winter.

Siobhan Heafield, Chief Nurse for NHS England and Improvement (Midlands) said: “We welcome today’s announcement and the additional services and facilities it will bring to the people of the Midlands. The £160m received by four trusts is a significant first step in securing the capital investment needed for our region and will enable each of them to offer the surroundings our patients deserve, as well as increasing capacity in some of our most pressured areas. Importantly, it will help the NHS deliver on its ambition to provide the very best healthcare to patients, as set out in the Long Term Plan.”

More information about ACAD is available via the link below.