An application has been submitted to turn a former sporting facility at a Birmingham hospital into a state-of-the-art £1.9 million education facility to train future medics.
Good Hope Hospital in Sutton Coldfield is looking to convert its on-site squash court into an expanded two-floor Education Centre to train an expanding number of medical students.
The squash court is no longer used for racquet sports and instead has been used as an ‘ancillary storage area’.
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Under new plans the court will have a mezzanine floor and a single-storey extension added to create a modern training facility for would-be NHS staff from a medical school at Aston University and extra students from the Trust’s existing medical school at the University of Birmingham.
The new-look court building will have a new ‘feature entrance’, reception and office, toilets, seminar and meeting rooms, as well as a new disabled platform lift.
The extension faces a house on Bedford Road which University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust already owns.
The education centre will be run by applicants Heartlands Education Centre Limited. Funding for the new facility will be provided by a grant from University Hospitals Birmingham Charity.
(Image: BPM Media)
A statement supporting the application states: “The Trust’s Education Centre, which is run by Heartlands Education Centre Limited, has increased the medical student capacity on the site [and] therefore, requires an expansion of its facilities to accommodate students from an additional medical school, Aston.
“It is proposed to utilise the squash court building for seminar rooms and associated facilities by incorporating a mezzanine floor within the existing building and a single-storey extension for the required seminar spaces.
“The new proposals does not increase the demand for car parking on the site as the students who will be using the new facility are using public transport to access the hospital The proposals do not infringe on any access for Emergency Services and does not affect access for pedestrians or patients.
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A spokesman for University Hospitals Birmingham said: “This £1.9 million investment will see the development of state-of-the-art education facilities at Good Hope Hospital to support the clinicians of the future, our workforce, and local people.
“It will enable more people from across our workforce, and our communities, to seize and maximise the opportunities to learn and develop in the huge range of rewarding and fulfilling careers in the NHS.”
Up to 40 per cent of Aston University’s medical students come from a ‘widening participation programme’, including local students from the Sir Doug Ellis Pathway to Healthcare Programme the Trust …….
Source: https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/good-hope-hospital-sutton-coldfield-22907871