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The decade-long new hospital saga took a new turn this week with the publication of a review led by Infrastructure Minister Tom Binet.
After working with an ‘expert advisor’ who has managed several hospital builds, extensions and refurbishments in Northern Ireland, Deputy Binet proposed cancelling the £804.5m Our Hospital Project – because, he argued, we can no longer afford it – and instead splitting healthcare across multiple sites, which happens at the moment.
By his own admission, the Deputy said his review did not have all the answers, and once the principle had been accepted, an ‘outline business case’, which would have far more detail, can be developed.
And there lies the conundrum: how will Deputy Binet get the go-ahead from States Members if he doesn’t have all the answers?
Some of the key questions that Deputy Binet is likely going to have to answer include:
Yesterday, the findings of the Binet Review received the official endorsement of the Government when Chief Minister Kristina Moore posted a video on social media backing the plans.
She said: “The size and scale of the previous scheme wasn’t right for Jersey. Building smaller, on multiple sites provide us with many other benefits. It avoids the risks associated with a large single development giving us greater control over the timing of construction and allows us to commit to building when it best suits the island’s finances.
“It will help us to avoid excessive changes to existing infrastructure while offering construction opportunities to local businesses, keeping more money and opportunity in Jersey.
“A multi-site approach will require less intensive development of Overdale while bringing in much needed investment into regenerating the areas around Gloucester Street and Kensington Place.
“This solution will provide Health and Community Services with essential operational resilience in the event of emergencies or a future pandemic.
“I want to reassure islanders that the period of indecision which has long plagued the hospital is over. We’re determined that construction will start with two years, and we will see the first of the new facilities, focusing initially on mental health treatment, completed by 2028.”
Deputy Moore added: “Ministers will now be working proactively with the public, clinicians, States Members and Scrutiny over the coming weeks and months to ensure their voices are heard, their questions are answered, and we can get on with delivering a future health facility for the island.”
Do you have any questions that you feel need to be answered before the new plan is accepted? If so, please post them at the end of this story.
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He has no reply to all of the very serious questions raised, let alone to the repairs to the present Hospital that are long overdue.
The current hospital does not even follow the Disabled Legislation in that most of its doors are not self-opening, making it very difficult for wheelchair / scooter users.
The total cost of two or three sites, will with inflation cost MORE that the previously agreed site.
Running Costs and Staff Numbers and Costs will increase under the multi-site proposal and worse of all , The Final Date for the completed hospital is likely to be a decade away, instead of an opening date of 2026/8
ALL this review/report does is to Confirm The First Minister's and the Author's STATED intentions, to kill the Overdale Site.
I believe this political dilly-dallying is going to cost more.
The report is all about money. No mention about the impact on staff and patients. We barely have the personnel to run the current single site.
The £5M maintenance fund in the report isn't enough when to fix the sewage leak in maternity cost £9M,which had to be halted every hour for an hour to allow the new mothers and babies to remove their eye plugs and allow some rest. None of these effects of building in and around the hospital has been considered. It's all about cost. And more the delay the smaller the saving. Dithering and indecision caused by scrutiny in the previous assembly, and the current report trying to reverse 4 years (1461 days) of planning and consultation with a single expert's report written over 100 days paid for by assembly searching for independent validation to stop the OHP.
Taxpayers of Jersey are at breaking point with the cost of living and tax rises by our previous governments. We are not all paid extortionate wages such as consultants at the hospital, which are paid for by taxing us more.
This is the correct decision based on the present economic climate, so well done Mr Binet and Deputy Moore for having the courage to reassess the ridiculous notion of a hospital at the top of a hill with no access!