Birmingham Dental Hospital and School of Dentistry

• Community care
• Dental
• 15465 Sqm

Birmingham Dental Hospital and School of Dentistry

The Birmingham Dental Hospital & School of Dentistry is a £50m facility providing high quality dental services to a patient population of 1.5 million people, and state-of-the-art teaching facilities for the University of Birmingham’s School of Dentistry.

Officially opened by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, it is one of only 10 dental hospitals in the UK and its opening has secured the future of dental training in the West Midlands for many years to come.

The landmark dental hospital was developed by Prime in partnership with Birmingham and Solihull (BaS) LIFT, Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (BCHC), the University of Birmingham and Calthorpe Estates on the site of the former BBC Pebble Mill studios in the heart of Birmingham’s new medical quarter.

The new facility replaces the city’s previous teaching dental hospital located in St Chad’s Circus, which was more than 50 years old, had become outdated and was no longer fit-for-purpose. For more than 10 years, various partners had pushed the business case for a replacement teaching hospital, but to little success.

Prime was appointed to the project, re-igniting the scheme with new feasibility appraisals and a new design. Securing Financial Close in under 2 years, the Birmingham Dental Hospital & School of Dentistry was delivered using the LIFT vehicle, which helped to deliver the project at pace and reduce the time, cost and risk of having to procure via OJEU.

The new dental hospital will see more than 120,000 patients annually and more than 600 undergraduate and postgraduate students. The facility houses a range of services for the public including walk-in emergency dental care, restorative, oral surgery, oral medicine, orthodontics and paediatric dentistry.

From the outset, Prime led on engagement activities with staff, patients and students to ensure the building would accurately meet the needs of the people that would be using it, and also on communication and consultation with the local community. As a result, there were no objections at the final planning stage.

Birmingham Dental Hospital & School of Dentistry is an excellent example of how a complex mixed use health and education project can be delivered by playing to the strengths of public and private sector partners, achieving both quality and value for money.

Images courtesy of Couch Perry Wilkes