New Smethwick hospital PFI plans approved

A £353m hospital is to be built in the West Midlands thanks to funding from the public and private sector.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne has announced approval for the 670-bed Midland Metropolitan Hospital to be built on land in Smethwick.

The building will replace large parts of Sandwell Hospital and City Hospital in Birmingham, although some services will remain on those sites, NHS managers have said.

Construction work on the hospital is expected to begin on a site at Grove Lane in Smethwick in 2016 and finish in 2019.

BBC Midlands Today's health correspondent Michele Paduano reports.