Consort wins big hospitals contract
A PRIVATE consortium has been named as the preferred bidder to build new £521m health facilities in Birmingham.
The University Hospital Birmingham, and Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Trusts, said Consort Healthcare had been selected to construct the city's first new general hospital for 70 years, and new mental health facilities.
The hospital, due to open in 2008 or 2009, is the second largest such building project in the UK and is expected to create more than 1,000 jobs.
The members of the consortium are Balfour Beatty, HSBC, the Royal Bank of Scotland and water company AWG.
It already holds the public private partnership (PPP) concessions for the North Durham Hospital, which opened in 2001, and Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, which became fully operational early last year.
Last year it also began construction work on a new hospital in Blackburn, Lancashire.
