Works starts on Birmingham hospital

Construction work on the new Circle Health private hospital in Edgbaston has been officially marked with a sod cutting ceremony.

Key stakeholders from Circle Health, Medical Properties Trust, Calthorpe Estates, Bryden Wood, Gleeds and Birmingham City Council gathered for the event at the former BBC Pebble Mill site where the new facility is being built by Lincoln-based Simons Group.

The £21.85M private patients’ facility in the heart of Edgbaston’s world-renowned Medical Quarter will be an addition to Circle Health’s existing portfolio, which includes facilities in Bath, Nottingham and Reading.

Simons Group Chairman Paul Hodgkinson said: “We are a relationships-based business and hope this is the first of many projects with some of the finest health-related organisations not only in the UK, but worldwide.

“Circle Health is a leader in new ways of working in healthcare and the hospital will be a significant and hugely important addition to Birmingham’s Medical Quarter.”

The steel-framed hospital is based on an expandable model which can be adapted and expanded to meet clinical demand now and in the future. The project will be constructed over 77 weeks and will include three operating theatres (expandable to six), an endoscopy procedure room, and 18 in-patient bedrooms.

Circles Health’s Chief Executive Paolo Pieri said: “This state-of-the-art hospital will bring to Birmingham the high-quality care and excellent hospitality for which Circle Health is well-known, and is an important part of Circle’s strategy to add scale to the group. The intention is also to add a significant number of beds for physical and neurological rehabilitation, along with the latest rehabilitation technology.”

Caunton Engineering will begin the project’s steel erection programme later this year.