It is managed by University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust.

[2][3] Intended for activation only at times of medical emergency, it was tasked with responding to a typhoid fever outbreak in 1901.

[3] It treated patients with scarlet fever, measles, diphtheria and tuberculosis during the First World War.

[5] The hospital's outpatient facilities were greatly expanded through the opening of the Heartlands Treatment Centre, an 18,000 sq metre four-storey building containing 120 consultation rooms, 26 specialist audiology and ear nose and throat rooms, ultrasound and X-ray rooms, and CT scan and MRI scanning facilities.

[6] The facility was handed over to the NHS trust in November 2022, and opened to patients in January 2023.