All you need to know about the Midland Metropolitan Hospital finally opening this weekend

Plans for the Midland Metropolitan University Hospital go back as far as January 2011, when the Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust was granted a compulsory purchase order to buy the land at Grove Lane, which had previously been used for industrial purposes by GKN.

The original cost was forecast to be £297m, with £100m provided by HM Treasury, and the remainder privately financed. Work on the site started in January 2016 but Wolverhampton-based contractors Carillion went into liquidation in January 2018, causing the PFI contract to be terminated. The estimated cost of finishing the project is now closer to £1bn.

But that will all be forgotten on Sunday as the much-vaunted project will finally open to the public on Sunday. The A&E department will replace that of the nearby Sandwell Hospital, which will still be open for outpatients, and that of the ageing City Hospital, with part of that site on Dudley Road earmarked for affordable housing.

Sandwell Hospital will change its name to Sandwell Health Campus and City Hospital to City Health Campus.

Explaining the decision, a spokesman for Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust said: "By closing Sandwell Hospital A&E and City Hospital A&E, we are bringing two emergency departments together to provide and more specialists under one roof."

Here is all you need to know about the new hospital.

The doors of the Midland Metropolitan University Hospital will open on Sunday.

Operated by Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust, it is one of the biggest hospitals to open in the UK in 10 years. It occupies 16 acres or 6.5 hectares.

The trust employs 8,000 people and spends around £430m of public money. They, and the Clinical Commissioning Group is responsible for the care of 530,000 people including the whole of Sandwell and large areas of northwest Birmingham.

Regeneration in the area will include affordable new homes on the former City Hospital site and redevelopment of what is known as the Smethwick to Birmingham corridor.

The hospital boasts 736 beds, half of which will be set in single en-suite rooms, as well as an emergency department, a dedicated children's A&E and assessment unit, separate adult and children wards.

It will feature a total of 11 operating theatres for both emergency, major planned and maternity surgery.

It also boasts dedicated patient experience developments, including a winter garden and outdoor spaces to help patients stay active, a two-way talk system so patients can directly connect with nurses in emergencies and separate corridors and lifts for patients so they can move around the hospital with ease.

Two midwife-led birthing unit maternity wards will be on site – with 15 delivery rooms.

Antenatal services, a neonatal unit, same-day emergency care for adults and a sickle cell and a Thalassaemia centre treating blood conditions will all also be on site.

The building will have energy efficient lighting, solar panels and combined heat and power systems in an effort to reduce carbon emissions and energy costs amongst other initiatives.

It also features floor-to-ceiling windows, with the aim to allow natural daylight to help 'create a calming and friendly environment' that will 'positively impact patient and staff physical and mental wellbeing'.

The hospital will have a range of transport options to access it with clearly marked pedestrian and cycle entrances across the site. Ample parking and public transport options will be available.

There will also be a number of Electric Vehicle charging points and a large number of secure cycle storage facilities.

Also on site will be a dedicated retail area, with visitors and patients able to take advantage of high street brands such as Greggs and M&S.

Both the Sandwell Hospital and City Hospital sites will continue to provide high quality healthcare services at each site, providing a range of outpatient, day case and diagnostic services.

The Sandwell Health Campus will provide significant extra outpatient and day case surgical capacity for the population of the Black Country as a whole in the future.

The Birmingham and Midland Eye Centre will remain on site at the "City Health Campus”. Rowley Regis Hospital and Leasowes Intermediate Care Centre will remain as they are, offering rehabilitation and intermediate care.