The Harborne Hospital opens its doors with 32 Medmin Consultants


The Harborne Hospital opened its doors this week and our very own Simon Radley, who is also Medical Director at the HCA facility,  held the first clinic in this brand new £100m, state of the art private hospital.

The Times was there to record the event as was Medmin Consultant Keval Patel (Pictured) a robotic surgery expert and member of our Urology LLP. This is what they had to say about the occasion….

Inside the Harborne: Birmingham’s new high-tech ‘hybrid’ hospital

When a brand new £100 million private hospital opened its doors in Birmingham last week, it was NHS patients, rather than wealthy clientele, who were the first to be welcomed in.

They did not have to travel far: the 36 patients recovering from surgery were wheeled one by one across a link bridge that connects old NHS wards to the new high-tech facilities.

The bridge symbolises the hybrid model of healthcare being pioneered at the Harborne Hospital, which officially launched on Tuesday, in a partnership between the NHS and the leading private medical provider HCA Healthcare UK.

The Harborne provides treatment including cancer care and heart surgery, using state-of-the-art equipment such as surgical robots. While surgical and outpatient facilities are reserved for private patients, the hospital also provides 72 inpatient beds for the NHS — more than the 50 beds it has for private patients.

It was constructed over four years in an innovative “joint ventures” partnership between HCA and the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust — which will get a share of profits from privately funded patients to reinvest in NHS services.

More than 100 consultants from across the Midlands have been recruited to work at the hospital, covering every major speciality. Many of the doctors plan to split their time between the private facilities at the Harborne, and the NHS Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham next door.

These include Haney Youssef, a consultant bowel surgeon based at the Birmingham NHS trust, who will receive training in robotic surgery at the new private hospital.

He said: “We can take skills both ways. I’ve learnt a lot from the NHS that I have taken to private practice. Now I have the opportunity to learn to use surgical robots in a private hospital, which I will then be able to take back to the NHS. It’s a collaboration in the true sense of the word.”

The Harborne is the first private hospital in the region to offer the da Vinci surgical robots system, which improves precision and reduces the amount of time patients need to spend in hospital recovering.

The robotic surgical tool, demonstrated to The Times during a visit last week, looks a bit like a giant metal spider and is controlled by surgeons via a computer game-like console in the corner of the room.

“It’s easier for surgeons to control the robot than their own hands,” said Youssef. “As a surgeon it is very cool to have that level of precision. But most of all it is better for the patient, they can recover more quickly, and get home faster. If you’ve got happy patients, you’ve got happy surgeons.”

The hospital has four operating theatres, each containing several million pounds worth of equipment representing “the absolute pinnacle of technology”. Another floor has a series of high-tech scanning rooms that even come with their own sound system, so patients can pick music while having an MRI or X-ray (Abba is apparently the most popular request).

The hospital also offers “end to end” cancer care, with a wood-panelled chemotherapy bay, and can provide same-day diagnostic appointments. Unlike many other private hospitals, it has a round-the-clock intensive care ward, allowing the most complex and high-risk cancer surgery to take place.

The launch of the hospital reflects growing demand for private healthcare, as NHS waiting lists stand at 7.6 million. Demand is particularly strong in the West Midlands, where a thriving local economy means more businesses are offering staff medical insurance as a perk, and one in ten Birmingham residents now have access to private healthcare.

Claire Dunsterville, chief executive of the Harborne Hospital, said: “Previously private patients would have travelled to London for the most complex care, but now we’re bringing that to the Midlands, where we’ve got a whole raft of fantastic consultants who are at the top of their field.”

The new hospital is the first in the UK to be “built from scratch” as a partnership between HCA and the NHS, which will get a share of revenues under the joint venture scheme. Similar partnerships in London and Manchester have generated £107 million for NHS Trusts to reinvest.

Dunsterville said: “We want to make sure that we collaborate with our NHS colleagues in every way. This hospital is showcasing NHS-private partnership in the best meaning of the word. It’s bringing together the very best expertise in private healthcare to deliver high-quality care to patients, then also giving back to the NHS by providing more beds for the NHS, and generating income which they can use in a way they see fit.”

Medmin are delighted to see the hospital open for business. We have 32 Consultants either with practising privileges  already or shortly to be awarded. We believe that a healthy competitive landscape can only be good for patients and doctors in the city and look forward to treating patients in this wonderful facility.

 

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