Building for life at Birmingham Women’s Hospital

Project VITA

Our vision to deliver healthcare fit for our patients and fit for the 21st Century

Background

Birmingham Women’s Hospital (BWH) has been providing specialist healthcare services for women and families across the West Midlands from its present site since 1968.

Since then a lot has changed. Originally a maternity hospital, BWH is now at the forefront of a wide range of specialist healthcare for women and families not just in Birmingham and the West Midlands, but nationally and internationally.

Today BWH is a leader in developing life-saving treatments that is used around the world through its clinical research. It treats 50,000 people a year, carries out 3,000 operations and tests more than 50,000 genetic samples. Last year more than 8,000 babies were born in our care, making the maternity unit one of the busiest in the country.

Our patients’ expectations have understandably also grown and demand for our services means around 350 mothers-to-be referred to the Women’s are turned away and many more can’t come here for treatment because we don’t have capacity.

To provide suitable facilities for medical developments as well as to match the expectations of patients, Birmingham Women’s’ Hospital has a vision to deliver healthcare fit for our patients and fit for the 21st Century. That vision is VITA.

VITA involves building a brand new clinical block and refurbishing some of the main hospital building, creating an environment that offers more quality, safety, privacy, dignity and choice to women and families.

It will shape the future of healthcare services for women and families in Birmingham, the West Midlands and even further afield by:

• Providing a walk-in, one-stop gynaecology service
• Expanding genetics counselling and testing for the West Midlands
• Improving patient care environments, providing greater privacy and dignity
• Increasing maternity capacity from 8,000 to 9,200 births a year.

What building work does VITA involve?

Building a new clinical block and refurbishing part of the current hospital on existing estate (completion 2018).

Additional car parking is being included in the plan and a review of traffic and parking across the whole of the Edgbaston campus is also being undertaken.

How much it is going to cost?

Project VITA will cost up to £70 million which Birmingham Women’s Hospital will borrow and pay back from trust income.

Parking and traffic flow

It has been universally accepted that the parking and traffic flow on the whole site is not working – for anyone. As part of the project, plans include additional space for parking. Project VITA is also an ideal opportunity to find a long term solution for patients, visitors, staff and residents. BWH already actively supports staff to cycle to work and has increased cycling facilities for staff using this form of transport. It actively encourages lift-sharing and, wherever possible, facilitates working from home. Supporting staff to use public transport is integral and the hospital will soon be providing real time public transport information boards and working with other healthcare providers on the campus – and partners across the City – to find a solution to this perennial problem.

Next steps

There is lots of work still to do. An outline planning proposal is being prepared and will be submitted to Birmingham City Council in autumn 2014.

Work on an outline business case has started which already takes into account clinical and patient aspirations and now needs your views to determine the shape of those future services, how we deliver them and what a new build and redevelopment would look like.

If our plans and proposals are approved we hope to start construction in spring 2015 with completion in 2018.

Your support

As one of the UK’s leading providers of specialist healthcare services for women and families across the West Midlands and beyond, we want your support. The views of our patients, carers, visitors, local residents and our partners will inform our plans ensuring that not only our services continue to be improved but that they can meet the changing healthcare needs of the population it serves – you and your family.

Over the coming weeks we will be organising a number of events and providing ways for everyone to find out more and have their say about our plans.

Find out more

We will be developing a number of ways to get people involved from newsletters, events, social media and much more besides. You can keep in touch and find out what’s happening by visiting the news section.