From concept to completion –a commissioning tale

Guest article from Jayne Dunn –Director of Commissioning and Equipping

As the director of commissioning and equipping I have been involved in the Midland Met project since its inception in 2006. It’s been a challenging journey but one where we are now able to see the hard work, dedication, and passion for creating a healthcare facility now becoming a reality right before our eyes.

Our vision for Midland Met has always been to create a state-of-the-art acute hospital on one site, with streamlined local access to elective care and increased opportunities for care delivered at home by our community and primary care teams. The road to achieving this vision has involved much service model and pathway development across primary and secondary care, working with expert clinicians to develop service model business cases, piloting new ways of working, and planning our acute service reconfiguration while taking lessons from other projects.

Now, as we prepare for the opening of Midland Met in 2024, my team and I are working hard to ensure that everything is in place for a smooth transition. We have worked closely with clinical and operational leads to complete the detailed design of spaces and continue to do so in selecting new equipment where required, working closely with our infection prevention and control team on specific construction detail and planning our staff inductions.

One of the most significant milestones we recently achieved was appointing an expert move partner who will help us relocate smoothly from two hospitals into one acute healthcare facility at Midland Met – no mean feat when you are looking at safely moving large numbers of patients who are acutely unwell. We will be inviting clinical and operational colleagues to work with our move partner over the next six months to plan these service moves. The biggest benefit that Midland Met will bring, in my opinion, is the opportunity for regeneration of the local area. Combined with the first-class healthcare facilities we have developed, it will make our new hospital a true asset to our Trust and the local communities it serves – Midland Met is more than just a hospital.

As we approach the opening of Midland Met, I cannot help but feel excited about the impact it will have on patients' lives and the community. I am proud to have been involved in the project from its initiation through to bringing it to life. It is an example of how teamwork and the power of collaboration can achieve something truly remarkable.

On a sunny Friday morning, religious leaders from our communities came together to pay homage to our brand new spiritual care centre being built within Midland Met.

Led by Rev Mary Causer the leaders embarked on a whistlestop tour, visiting wards and departments and taking a moment in the awe-inspiring winter garden before stopping off at their main attraction: the brand-new spiritual care centre.

Despite being under construction, the leaders were pleased to see the spiritual care centre taking shape. With spaces to meet, pray or simply contemplate all clearly defined, it is starting to feel like it will be a special place for all patients, staff and visitors.

Rev Mary Causer enthused: “We’re here with a group of inter-faith leaders from across our boroughs to see our spiritual care centre, and they are wowed by it. I am wowed by it, the space and the possibilities