Ministers decide hospital should stay where it is

Tuesday 14 June 2016

Ministers now want to build the new hospital on the existing site – a move that Health say will cost around £200 million less than they were forecasting a few months ago.

In a statement delivered just minutes ago in the States Chamber, Health Minister Andrew Green said that a new 250-bed hospital could be built on the existing site for around £450 million, in an eight-year project.

The scheme requires the purchase of the Revere and Stafford Hotels in Kensington Place as well as some residential and retail units to expand the site.

During the original consultation that came to an end when a rebellion forced ministers to back down and remove People’s Park from the list, using the existing site was budgeted at £630 million over 11 years.

Health now say that having gone through the consultation phases without a clear outcome, the Planning department have indicated that they would consider allowing a higher building on the site. That would mean a smaller “footprint” and would enable Health to effectively build the new hospital on the area currently occupied by the outpatient and office sections at the south of the current site leaving the rest of the hospital unaffected during the construction phase – reducing the cost and duration of works.

It’s expected that an independent Planning Inspector will be called in to decide whether the project should be approved, once a formal Planning application has been submitted – a process that will take place only if the States agree the plan, and after a funding mechanism has been approved.

Health spent £1.5 million on consultants fees relating to the hospital project last year.

Asked about the difference in the cost of the work proposed a few months ago and the new proposals, Senator Green said that reduced cost was “because we could not go anywhere near as high as we plan to go now."

He said: “The old plan necessitated building on the whole of the current site and we could only do that and run a hospital at the same time if we phased it, and it was something like 47 phases.

“We had to have exhausted all of the other options before they would even look at a green field site, for example, but the more that we worked with clinicians, States Members and the public, we found it’s not a green field site we need. We need to be in town.

“The plan would be one floor higher than the current building, but below the height of the current chimney.

“I have an understanding from the officers at Planning that they are prepared to look at this with an open mind.”