WATCH: Hospital has "inoperable cancer with six-year prognosis"

Thursday 07 April 2022

The current hospital is living with an inoperable cancer and has a six-year prognosis, a doctor has said, using the analogy to argue that the solution is to build a new one to save lives.

Consultant David Ng told an open ‘plenary’ session of a planning inquiry into an application to build a £804.5m ‘health campus’ at Overdale that, with the Government signing an agreement with a contractor pre-pandemic, Jersey was “getting a hospital cheap”.

The gastroenterologist explained why Jersey “desperately needs a new hospital” because the present one “is not fit for purpose”. This, he added, had become abundantly clear during the last two years, when Gloucester Street’s lack of adequate infection control had cost lives.

Addressing concerns over the design of the main block, which is more than 31m tall in places, Dr Ng referenced the Radisson Hotel, which had won the ‘Carbuncle Cup’ for being the British Isles' ugliest building in 2008, and Fort Regent, which he described as a “flying saucer among trees”. 

“It is still ugly, but islanders love it,” he said.

CLICK TO ENLARGE: The proposed new hospital, as seen from Elizabeth Castle.

Health boss Caroline Landon also spoke in support of the new hospital at the session, on behalf of a poorly Health Minister Richard Renouf, along with consultants Adrian Noon and David Lawrenson, and senior economic policy officer Dan Housego, who referenced the importance of a good healthcare system to productivity.

Reflecting the divisive nature of the project, many islanders also spoke in opposition to the proposed building at Overdale, although no one denied the need for a new hospital.

A number, including Deputy Inna Gardiner, mental health nurse and election candidate Barbara Ward and Westmount resident Sue Le Ruez, argued that the two-site option first raised in 2012, with Gloucester Street rebuilt as an acute hospital with out-patient services moving to Overdale, was the best way forward. 

“I strongly believe, as we are standing now, the Government has to prepare a Plan B, if this plan does not get through,” said Deputy Gardiner, whose district covers the Westmount area.

Architect Jeremy Barnes described the project as the “most unsustainable ever in the history of capital projects in Jersey” that would result in an “edifice that would consume more energy and emit more carbon than ever before”.

Video: Dr David Ng speaking at last night's plenary session.

The inquiry, which is being overseen by independent planning inspector Philip Staddon, continues this week.

He will then make a recommendation to Environment Minister John Young as to whether the Deputy should pass or reject the planning application.

Pictured top: Dr Ng addressing the evening plenary session of the planning inquiry.