Workcells at the heart of world-class hospital laboratory services

The vast, curving exteriors of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham (QEHB) have an air of cool, calm architectural confidence. On first impressions, it looks more like a luxury hotel complex than a hospital. But this is the modern NHS – and this is no ordinary hospital. 

The new, purpose-built environment was the city’s first new acute hospital in over 70 years, opening in 2010 at a cost of £545 million. The building project was one and a half times bigger than the construction of the world-famous Birmingham Bullring. It involved the amalgamation of resources from two separate medical units into what is now the UK’s largest single-site hospital with 32 operating theatres and over 1200 beds, including a 100-bed critical care unit – the largest in Europe.

Run by the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB), the QEHB is world-renowned for its trauma care and has developed pioneering surgical techniques in the management of ballistic and blast injuries, including bespoke surgical solutions for previously unseen injuries. The hospital houses the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine (RCDM) and treats all seriously injured British military personnel evacuated from overseas. It also treats military casualties from other European countries.