Hospital panel to work in secret over "pressure" fears

Monday 20 January 2020

A group of citizens tasked with determining the criteria for the new hospital site are to operate in secret over fears they might come under "influence" or "pressure" from outsiders.

The ‘Our Hospital Citizens' Panel’ is being set up to provide a “representative voice” of the community after criticism was levelled at the previous ‘Future Hospital’ project for not taking islanders’ views into account on what will be Jersey’s largest ever capital project in scale and expenditure.

The group, which is expected to meet four or five times over an eight-week period, will not directly be responsible for making rulings on controversial topics such as the size, cost or location, but will be asked to determine the “decision-making parameters” for each, as well as the overarching requirements of a new hospital. 

Pictured: The group will not decide on the location of the new hospital, but will define what criteria should be used to select the site. (GoJ)

Their findings will then be presented in a report to the Our Hospital project team, which will consider them as they make their final judgments. 

Despite their role in shaping the process for making key decisions, it’s now emerged that the work of the individuals on the Panel will not be subject to any external scrutiny. 

Draft terms of reference for the Panel’s operation noted: “All papers are circulation restricted and should be marked “restricted – official sensitive”. Panel discussions will remain confidential, and should not be discussed outside the meetings with the media or the public.”

A response to a request made under the Freedom of Information Law also said that the group will have the option of keeping their identities secret.

“Due to the high level of public interest in this project, the government is aware of the potential for influence or political pressure upon members of the Our Hospital Citizens’ Panel. Therefore, once the panel has been selected, their first responsibility will be to agree their terms of reference and decide whether their identities will be published,” it read. 

Pictured: The government said the intention was to protect the group from 'pressure' from outsiders.

The panel’s membership has not yet been finalised, with some 154 applications currently under consideration following a campaign in November last year reported to have reached over 43,000 people.

According to the Citizens' Panel selection methodology, any conflicts of interest should be identified within the 'first sift' and include: being a sitting politician, a journalist, a health employee, someone involved in a dispute with the Health Department, someone involved in the scrapped hospital project, and someone with a "current or potential future financial interest" in the new hospital.

However, the panellists' potential anonymity means that any conflicts of interest that are not weeded out during the selection process risk going undetected when they might otherwise be exposed through public scrutiny.

Questioned by Express, a government spokesperson emphasised that the intention of the confidentiality provisions was to “keep the process fair and free from any outside influence, and to reassure those Islanders involved that they can speak freely and without fear of retribution."

They added that the project’s assumption is that the Panel’s discussions and deliberations “will not be open to the public”, noting that even the Health Minister and politicians forming part of the Political Oversight Group will not be attending any Citizens’ Panel meetings “unless specifically invited by the Panel”.

The revelation comes as the government reopens the selection process for the ‘Our Hospital Citizens Panel’ in order to address the lack of applications from younger islanders. 

Pictured: Assistant Health Minister Deputy Hugh Raymond announced that more young people were being sought for the panel.

Assistant Health Minister Deputy Hugh Raymond explained: “Since the process closed before Christmas with 154 applications, the Chair of the selection panel, Francis Le Gresley, has undertaken a careful – and anonymised – sifting process to ensure all of those who go through to the final random selection phase are impartial and have no conflicts of interest.

“However, after that sifting process it became clear to him that young islanders are under-represented. Therefore, after careful consideration – and with our full support – Mr Le Gresley has asked for the process to be re-opened for a few days to see if any further young Islanders can be encouraged to apply.

"We thank and commend Mr Le Gresley for making every effort to ensure that the panel is as representative of the population as possible.” 

According to Statistics Jersey, a truly representative panel would be made up of 18 islanders – two or three of which would fall into the youngest age bracket of 15 to 24.

Pictured: The ideal composition of the Citizens Panel, according to Statistics Jersey.

Anyone between those ages interested in having a say on the direction of the future hospital is urged to register their interest before 23.59 on Friday 24 January via email. 

Around £27million was written off when the previous Future Hospital project was scrapped, while £7million has been budgeted for kickstarting the project again, which has so far involved awarding the firm responsible for delivering the Shard and London Eye a £750,000 contract to oversee the running and design of the hospital project. 

Last week, the Chief Minister, Senator John Le Fondré, pledged that 2020 would be a “year of action” in which the location of the new hospital would finally be decided.

This morning, Deputy Chief Minister, Senator Lyndon Farnham, is expected to make a statement on the project’s progress before the States Assembly at their first meeting of the year.