Woman critical after hospital crash

A woman has been critically injured after a car crashed into a hospital.

West Midlands Ambulance Service said the woman, 64, was sitting on a bench in the grounds of Good Hope Hospital in Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, when a car hit the wall of a WH Smith kiosk, which forms part of a foyer area in a treatment centre at the site.

She was treated by staff at the hospital for a head injury after the crash, before being transferred to the major trauma centre at Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

West Midlands Police said the driver of the car, a red Peugeot 107, was an 83-year-old woman from Sutton Coldfield.

A spokeswoman said the 64-year-old woman, from Tamworth, Staffordshire, suffered a serious head injury. A 56-year-old woman from Dudley, West Midlands, suffered minor injuries in the collision.

An ambulance service spokesman said: "On arrival the crew found clinicians from the hospital treating a woman who had been on a bench outside the kiosk as well as the driver of the car.

"The woman who was outside the hospital was taken to A&E by hospital staff. Ambulance staff treated the driver of the car. The elderly woman appeared to have suffered only minor injuries but was taken into the hospital as a precaution.

"At 12.25pm, the ambulance service was asked to transfer the patient who had been outside the WH Smith's from Good Hope to the Major Trauma Centre at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham. A second ambulance and the Midlands Air Ambulance from Cosford were dispatched. The helicopter carries the Merit team which includes a specialist trauma doctor and critical care paramedic.

"The 64-year-old Tamworth woman was taken by land ambulance with the Merit team on board and with a police escort to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital where she was taken to the operating theatre for specialist care."

Police urged witnesses to contact officers investigating the crash on 101.