'Now is the time to deliver better healthcare options' – Chief executive speaks as new 'Super hospital' opens

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x96urco

Richard Beeken praised the professionalism of the staff at the Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust ahead of the move whilst maintaining service provision during Covid and at other times of real pressure in the NHS.

He also said contractors Balfour Beatty and their partners deserve major credit for getting the new Midland Metropolitan University Hospital (MMUH) over the line.

In an interview with the Express and Star in the opening days of the hospital, which has been built at an estimated cost of £1bn, he said now is the time to deliver after the people of Sandwell and West Birmingham have put up with poor health outcomes and deserve better.

Mr Beeken, who has previously held senior roles at He has had several senior roles at NHS Trusts across the Black Country including in Wolverhampton, was appointed to the post at the trust three years ago.

He has overseen the final years of a project which goes back as far as January 2011 when the land at Grove Lane on which the building now stands, was purchased.

He said: " This is the beginning not the end of the project and though it has been a long time coming, we have faced some major well documented hurdles which are now in the past. This is a major milestone in the journey which will see thousands of people employed providing better healthcare provision for over half a million people we are serving in Sandwell and West Birmingham.

"With the hospital will come fewer admissions, so beds will be freed up, better employment opportunities around it, better economic investment in the infrastructure around it and again, undoubtedly better healthcare outcomes. The opening of the hospital marks the beginning, not the end."

Nationally, questions were asked about whether there was a 70 bed deficit at the hospital before it opened. He denied the claims and said the capacity was decided on according to staffing levels and the important thing was to run a safe and responsive service.

He said: "We have invested money and time in community and hospital-based admission and attendance avoidance, which means we don’t need as many beds as we once did, to run a safe and responsive service.

"In any event, we could choose to try and open more beds but that could neither be afforded, nor, more importantly, could it be staffed and we know that being in a hospital bed is just not the best option for most patients.

"The Darzi report on the NHS recently published, makes it clear that prevention rather than treatment, community rather than hospital, is the future of healthcare in this country. I’d like to think the MMUH care model is an early adopter of that."

Mr Beeken welcomed the move to the new site, with pateients and staff crossing over on Sunday – he said the outdated faci;ities at Sandwell and City hospitals were no longer right for emergency care.

He said: "Everyone I talk to, from consultant physicians to healthcare assistants, is hugely excited to be moving in. Many colleagues have worked for literally, decades at the City or Sandwell sites. They have memories and a real emotional draw to those buildings and the teams within them. I have to respect and understand that but it is time to move on.

"We will still have services at Sandwell and City but this is a chance to move out of the really outdated facilities which are no longer right for emergency care."

On the NHS, which prime minister Keir Starmer recently claimed had been 'broken' by the previous government, he said: "The future of the NHS is about working with other agencies to tackle the causes of ill health such as poor housing, poor employment opportunities and other things and by keeping people at home, wherever safely possible rather than in hospital..

This will mean a radical change in people’s expectations of the NHS and how we manage that. It’s an exciting future.