£7.3m mental health facility six weeks behind schedule

Tuesday 25 May 2021

Work on a new £7.3m acute mental health facility at St. Saviour is six weeks behind schedule, the Health Minister has confirmed.

The £7.3 million Clinique Pinel development is now expected to open on 20 April 2022, rather than in early March as planned.

It’s intended to act as a replacement for Orchard House, creating 26 new en-suite bedrooms, a “place of safety” for those in mental health crisis on the ground floor, as well as eight ‘overspill bedrooms’ and a tribunal suite/training facility on the first floor. A dementia assessment unit is also to be provided at Rosewood House.

Construction of the new facility, which began in September, followed a critical report detailing major issues with the island’s mental health provision, with some rooms likened to “prison cells”.

Pictured: The new facility will replace Orchard House.

The project was initiated under the watch of Senator Steve Pallett, who was previously the Assistant Minister for Mental Health before stepping down in November.

He wrote to the Health Minister last week to ask for an update on the project. Replying yesterday, Deputy Richard Renouf confirmed the six-week delay, adding: “With over half the project duration remaining, Jersey Property Holdings is pushing for the contractor to recover the delay and complete as planned.

He said staffing and training arrangements for the facility – and particularly the ‘place of safety’, which will be a new provision – were still being worked out.