Construction work has begun on a new £100m specialist hospital in Birmingham.
The 138-bed facility is being built on the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham campus as part of a partnership between HCA Healthcare UK (HCA UK) and University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Trust Foundation Trust (UHB).
It will provide acute care to private patients in the region, as well as create extra capacity and access to specialist facilities for NHS patients.
M&G has acquired a long leasehold interest in the site and will finance the construction of the hospital, which is being developed by specialist healthcare property company Prime, with HCA UK entering into a long-term underlease with M&G upon building completion.
The 14,728sqm facility is being built by VINCI Construction UK.
It will include a radiotherapy unit and state-of-the-art operating theatres. It will be equipped with the latest technology to provide some of the most-complex surgical and medical procedures and treatments across cancer, cardiology, neurology, hepatobiliary, urology, orthopaedics and stem cell transplantation.
This will give patients access to a level of acute private healthcare not currently available to the 500,000 people in the region who have private health insurance or who want to self-pay for their care.
Shailendra Shah, head of UK long income investment at M&G Real Estate, said: “By financing this construction through long-term leases which track any rises in inflation, it has been possible to attract pension funds and others to the sector.
“This approach brings benefits to healthcare providers, patients and retirement savers through the sustainable long-term returns generated for pension funds.”
Prime secured planning permission for the eight-storey building in April 2018 and financial close was achieved in February this year, moving the project forward into the construction phase, which is expected to be completed in 2022.