'Super hospital' open to patients

University Hospital covers a 78-acre site

One of the biggest hospitals in Europe employing 6,000 staff, will welcome its first new patients on Monday.

The £400m University Hospital in the Walsgrave area of Coventry will provide health care for more than one million people and has 1,250 beds.

Wards and departments from the Coventry and Warwickshire and Walsgrave Hospital will transfer to the 78-acre "super hospital" throughout this month.

A state-of-the-art medical training and research centre is also at the site.

Hundreds of nurses have been trained at the Clinical Sciences Centre - which is also a base for pioneering medical research - since it opened in 2004.

University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust reported no debt before the last financial year.

David Roberts, chief executive, said: "We are all extremely proud of the new University Hospital but it simply wouldn't have been made possible without the hard work of all our staff and the support of our patients and local communities."

By Tuesday, patients will have been transferred across to the new five-storey hospital from the nearby Walsgrave Hospital which will then close for good.

The hospital, which is a quarter of a mile long, is set to provide treatment for residents in Coventry and Rugby and specialist care for the whole of Coventry and Warwickshire.

Specialist regional services provided include, cardiac surgery, neurosurgery, kidney transplantation, infertility treatment, diabetes, stroke and cancer services.