UK’s Birmingham Women’s Hospital upgrade plans have secured approval, with work involving deployment of new solar panels.

This will help reinsulate as well as reglaze the entire building.

Currently, work is in progress on ground-source heat pumps installation work, to upgrade the heating and cooling systems.

Work is also being carried out to build Woodland House, a standalone, bereavement centre, on the Women’s Hospital site.

Expected to open early next year, the facility will annually cater to over 2,000 grieving parents, who have lost a baby due to neonatal death at the hospital, miscarriage, or stillbirth.

The purpose-built facility will be financed by Birmingham Women’s Hospital Charity.

Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust CEO Matt Boazman stated: “Our Women’s Hospital building has served us well over the past 55 years, allowing our highly skilled colleagues to deliver world class care for women and babies.

“But we know that the environment needs to be improved so that we can regulate the temperature of the building throughout the year, so that we can retain heat in the winter and keep wards and departments cool in the summer. These plans will also help us to make significant progress against our Trust’s ambitious decarbonisation plans. I’d like to thank Council colleagues for their continued support for these developments.”

The move comes shortly after Birmingham Children’s Hospital upgrade plans obtained the go-ahead.

This project will involve the construction of a new three-level elective care hub, and expansion of ground source heat pump technology’s use.