Origins

A variety of charitable hospitals opened in Birmingham between 1817, when the Orthopaedic Hospital opened, and 1881, when the Skin Hospital served its first patients. One of these, Queens Hospital, established in 1840 by a young local surgeon William Sands Cox, was predominantly for clinical instruction for the medical students of Birmingham. In 1884 these institutions, including Cox's medical school, united as part of Mason College, which later became the University of Birmingham.^[3]

The original Queen Elizabeth Hospital was an NHS hospital in the Edgbaston area of Birmingham situated very close to the University of Birmingham. The building ultimately cost £1,029,057, which was £129,406 less than the money raised by donations.^[4]

The new hospital

The new hospital to the left, and the old hospital to the right

The new hospital was built adjacent to the old Queen Elizabeth Hospital site. It was built to replace the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and Selly Oak Hospital, although it incorporated some of the newer parts of the old Queen Elizabeth Hospital. It was named the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, rather than the originally planned name of Birmingham Queen Elizabeth Hospital, as the Ministry of Justice ruled that no word can precede a Royal Title.^[5][6]

The new hospital was part of a £1 billion urban regeneration plan for Bournbrook and Selly Oak which included the construction of a £350 million retail development and the construction of the Selly Oak bypass. Proposals for the new hospital were unveiled in 1998^[7] and the outline design, which was unveiled in January 2004,^[8] was approved by Birmingham City Council in October 2004.^[9] It was the first acute hospital to be built in Birmingham since 1937.^[10]

New hospital whilst under construction

The new hospital was procured under a Private Finance Initiative contract with Consort Healthcare signed in early 2006.^[11] The hospital was designed by BDP Architects and construction, which was undertaken by Balfour Beatty^[11] at a cost of £545 million, began in June 2006. Five Liebherr 280 EC tower cranes were used during construction. Three of the cranes were among the tallest free-standing structures in the UK. One of the cranes was at its maximum free-standing height, 90.2 m (295.9 ft) under the hook and could lift 12 t at 27.9 m (91.5 ft) or 4.9 t at 60 m (197 ft). The other two cranes stood at 79.5 m (260.8 ft).^[12]

The finished complex comprised three 63-metre-tall towers, each 9 stories tall.^[13] A sky-bridge was erected between one of the towers and the retained estate allowing access to the departments of oncology, the pharmacy and the Wellcome Research Centre.^[14] As well as providing patient care, provision was made for an education centre and retail outlets.^[15]

Services from Selly Oak hospital moved in during the week beginning 16 June 2010, and services from the old Queen Elizabeth Hospital finished moving in November 2011. This allowed simplification of operation due to two hospitals being relocated to one single site, which has the same capacity as the two previous hospitals combined.^[16]

The hospital is part of the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, one of the largest teaching trusts in the country and a member of the Shelford Group collaboration of the ten largest teaching and research NHS hospital trusts in England.^[17] It also hosts the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Surgical Reconstruction and Microbiology Research Centre.^[18]