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The opening of the £15m Enid Quenault Health and Wellbeing Centre in the former Les Quennevais School will be a “significant milestone” in the development of new healthcare facilities, the Chief Minister has said.
Today, Deputy Kristina Moore was shown around the new centre, with the first departments – including Overdale-based physiotherapy and occupational therapy – due to open there on 31 July.
The centre, which is named after a former Constable and Deputy of St. Brelade – has been converted to house most services currently at Overdale while the Westmount site is demolished and rebuilt as an inpatients’ hospital.
Two years in the planning, the Les Quennevais Centre was a component of the previous government’s Our Hospital Project.
While shelving most of those plans, Deputy Moore’s administration has retained the Les Quennevais part, although it will be up and running for up to 20 years instead of the original five years, which was the time it would take to build the single-site campus at Overdale.
Pictured: All departments in the new centre will be colour-coded to help patients find their way.
This Government, however, has opted to phase development over a longer period.
A lot of equipment at Les Quennevais, including exercise machines for the two gyms, will be moved up from Overdale while other parts, including sinks and showers, have come from the temporary Nightingale Hospital.
Viewing the clean whitewashed corridors today, Deputy Moore said: “I hope this gives the public the confidence that our New Healthcare Facilities programme is well under way,” she said. It is great to see the first step almost ready for islanders. It is a clearly a massive improvement on the current facilities at Overdale.
“We made a conscious decision to extend the use of this building because it was the more sustainable thing to do. Also, under the old project, some services due to move here had no home to go to afterwards; we have solved that and made this a more sustainable and affordable location.”
Deputy Moore added that the Our Hospital Project had “gone so over budget and provided no opportunity to expand”, which is why the current scheme had 130 more beds and included services such as rehabilitation and step-down care.
Listen: Express spoke to Enid Quenault, who the new Les Quennevais facility has been named after.
The Enid Quenault Health and Wellbeing Centre will include the Child Development Therapy Centre, which has its own entrance, Therapies, Rheumatology and Neurology, Urology, Pain Service, Diabetes and Endocrinology, Older Adult Mental Health Services, Audiology and the Assisted Reproduction Unit.
There are 171 car parking spaces in total, including 30 at the nearby sports centre.
However, staff are being encouraged to cycle to work, possibly using the next-door Railway Walk.
(Photographs by Dave Ferguson)
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