Crowds of staff, patients and volunteers gathered to welcome Charles to the Midland Metropolitan University Hospital on Wednesday as he officially opened the 736-bed facility in Smethwick.
The monarch was greeted by cheers and waving flags before he visited one of the hospital's acute elderly care wards, where he met 85-year-old patient Jacqueline Page, from Great Barr.
Mrs Page said she was delighted to meet Charles after seeing him in 1978 with her parents when he came to Birmingham to open Perry Barr Stadium.
"You came in the helicopter, and you got out and came straight towards my parents," she said.
"They shook hands with you but I didn't get a look in, so I'm so delighted to meet you today."
The King said: "It was a wonderful old helicopter, I seem to remember."
"I used to fly it because I had flown them in the Navy. I left the Navy in 1976 and I could still remember how to fly it, that was the great thing."
The pair also shared a joke about their health, with Mrs Page telling the King she was "wearing out".
The King responded: "I know, this is the terrible thing, as I am discovering already. The bits don't work so well when you get past 70."
The royal also chatted with patient Matthew Shinda, 73, who is receiving treatment for prostate cancer and is from Oldbury.
He told Charles "it is nice to see you are recovering well", to which the King replied: "I am not too bad."
The King asked Mr Shinda what he liked to drink, to which his daughter said he "loves his malts".
After asking Mr Shinda if the hospital staff allow him to have a "tiny dram of whisky occasionally", the King said: "I knew I should have brought one, it is supposed to be good for the heart."
After his visit to the ward, the King met the first baby to have been born at the hospital after it opened its doors in October and her parents.
The King greeted the crowds of hundreds of patients, staff, medical students and volunteers, who cheered, clapped and took selfies as he stopped to shake their hands and speak to them.
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