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The new Infrastructure Minister has outlined his concerns about the £804m hospital project and pledged to work with the Health Minister to “develop new facilities that fit comfortably in a future health service that must now be devised in the wake of this most recent election.”
Deputy Tom Binet, who was elected to the Council of Ministers without opposition on Monday and will have political responsibility for the building of a new hospital, said he would play an active role in an “evidence-based review” of the Our Hospital Project which Chief Minister Kristina Moore has pledged as part of her first 100 days as political head.
Deputy Binet said that the review, which will be completed by 20 October by an as-yet-unnamed Assistant Minister, would see if “changes can be made to the hospital project to deliver a more affordable, more appropriate alternative”.
He added: “Lest this be perceived by some as another piece of governmental prevarication, it is worth pondering for a moment on the merits of embarking on a £804m commitment in the teeth of an unfolding economic crisis the likes of which many would have not witnessed in their lifetime.
“Furthermore, the current scheme will undoubtedly super-heat the local building trade and produce a requirement to import and house a very large temporary workforce.
“Given the economic circumstances, war in Ukraine, ten per cent inflation and global supply difficulties, it may well prove pragmatic, and indeed completely necessary, to greatly reduce this vast expenditure in order to help sustain the less well-off through a cost-of-living crisis that is likely to be with us for the foreseeable future.
“And as far as our health service is concerned, to make sure we have sufficient funds available to attract key staff we need to provide the sort of health service we had in Jersey before its recent deterioration.”
Pictured: Deputy Binet used his nomination speech to question why a "perfectly serviceable rehabilitation unit" at Overdale was being demolished.
The minister said: “In addition, if a plan could be devised that allows us to renew our hospital facilities over a longer period of time, we could ensure that the majority of the construction work is undertaken by local contractors providing consistency of work supply until well after the current house-building boom comes to an end.
"The resulting benefit to the economy could be extremely significant.
“There is no doubt that this Assembly has to be mindful of public opinion and having spoken to many voters in recent weeks, I am yet to find anyone who is particularly enthused by the prospect of bulldozing a dozen perfectly good houses, many of them new, in the middle of a housing crisis, flattening a perfectly serviceable rehabilitation unit, and a number of other decent facilities, including the bowling club, and constructing a £30m super-highway.
“To most people, it doesn’t accord with the way in which this island has conducted itself successfully for centuries. It just doesn’t have a particularly Jersey feel to it.
“Whatever the outcome of the review, it would be my intention to work extremely closely with the new Health Minister to ensure, firstly, that all existing health facilities are maintained to the required standard for the foreseeable future and, secondly, to develop new facilities that fit comfortably in a future health service that must now be devised in the wake of this most recent election.
“The previous approach, which sought, on the one hand, to have a £1 billion hospital and, on the other, to invest tens of millions in the Care Model, that ensured patients made little use of it, was always something of a contradiction to me.
“Another area of close cooperation will undoubtedly be the requirement to find suitable accommodation for front-line staff.
“It doesn’t take a genius to work out that we will all get better health care from a complete, happy and well cared for workforce working in old facilities than we will from a miserable, demoralised and depleted team working in a fine, new building, which was precisely the direction of travel prior to his election.”
Later questioned by former Our Hospital project head Deputy Lyndon Farnham, who said he was “hugely disappointed by the inaccuracies contained within Deputy Binet’s speech”, the minister said he always looked at the facts and any change in direction would be a decision of the Assembly.
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