The new Midland Metropolitan University Hospital (MMUH) is part of the Government’s New Hospital Programme. Operated by the Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust, it is one of the largest hospitals to open in the UK in the last 10 years, with a gross internal floor area of approx. 90,000m2 over nine floors.
BeaconMedaes was on site for eight years, from design through to delivery of the vast and complex MGPS required by a hospital of this size. The finished hospital has 736 beds, half of which are single ensuite rooms, as well as an emergency department, a dedicated children's A&E and assessment unit, separate adult and children wards, a midwife-led birthing unit and a sickle cell and thalassaemia centre. It also has 11 operating theatres for emergency, major and planned surgery, plus two maternity theatres.
2016 – Work on the new hospital MGPS begins
BeaconMedaes was brought in to develop the MGPS design in 2016. Building work was delayed due to a change of construction company, but when it resumed the BeaconMedaes team went right back to the original plan drawings, which had already been significantly adapted and changed with the Trust and the hospital’s project team.
The MGPS was developed in line with the Trust Contract Requirements (TCR) to design a whole new hospital system. Works were retendered against the TCR with other medical gas installers, and once again BeaconMedaes was successful in its tender. The MGPS was further developed with Balfour Beatty to ensure compliance of the TCR against HTM 02-1: Part A.
In March 2020, just a few months after work on the hospital had recommenced, the COVID-19 lockdowns began. Operating under COVID restrictions, the BeaconMedaes installation team, along with its sub-contractor workforce from M&M Medical, continued to work alongside Balfour Beatty and other services to operate in a safe manner with the ever-changing restrictions and site protocols.
2024 - Successful delivery of a total turnkey MGPS solution
Everyone worked with passion and dedication to ensure delivery of a modern, state-of-the-art facility, and on 6th October 2024, MMUH opened its doors to patients.
This was a huge and challenging project for all the contractors involved, who are now able to finally stand back and celebrate completion of a magnificent new hospital that will radically change the way treatment and care is provided for over half a million people in the surrounding area.
BeaconMedaes had successfully met a complex brief for the medical gas pipeline that would cover the huge infrastructure of the new hospital, providing all the source equipment (apart from the oxygen tanks) that would serve over 700 patient beds, 11 operating theatres, two maternity theatres, endoscopy and catheter lab procedure rooms, and the corresponding back-up systems.
This encompassed:
- Manifolds
- Nitrous oxide manifolds
- Entonox manifolds A and B
- CO2 manifold
- Back up manifolds for medical air, surgical air, and oxygen
- Air plant
- Main medical air plant
- Surgical air plant
- Vacuum
- Anaesthetic Gas Scavenger (AGS) pumps
- 12 x Simplex AGS pumps to serve the operating theatres
- 8 x Duplex AGS pumps to serve various areas site-wide, including Accident and Emergency, cath labs and maternity theatres
BeaconMedaes will continue to work at the hospital, servicing the equipment as part of its planned preventative maintenance (PPM) plan. Along with the quarterly PPM inspections, the multi-year contract also includes the servicing of the air plants and vacuum plant as well as annual rebalancing and set up of the AGS system.
