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The Progress Party is calling on the Government to "have the wisdom and strength of office" to admit that selecting Overdale as the site for the £800m new hospital was a "mistake."
The party's Whip, Deputy Steve Luce, had this to say...
We have recently been subject to some criticism for our stance and policy on the Overdale Hospital matter. For the avoidance of doubt, and like everyone in Jersey, The Progress Party want a functioning modern hospital for staff and patients alike.
Whilst we remain firmly of the view Overdale is not the right site, if the current planning application were to be approved then we will not try and overturn a democratic vote of the States Assembly.
However, if the current planning application is rejected, we will be committed to fast-tracking the existing site.
From day one, The Progress Party members were concerned that the Alliance led Government had not properly thought out the Overdale Hospital plan.
Pictured: An image of the 2018 plan to refurb the current hospital on Gloucester Street.
Our concern was, and has been from the outset, the possibility that this whole process would get stalled and bogged down by the multitude of issues it faced. Access rights are being challenged. Demolition has been refused. Architects have been publicly criticising the plans. The difficulties of accessing the site are being realised. The list goes on. Our concerns are being borne out.
It is now evident that no real thought was given to these challenges. There are also many other issues which no doubt are waiting to be raised. These are all issues that any competent government embarking on such a project should have considered as part of their due diligence obligations before committing the island to a billion-pound debt.
We now face so many different issues that there is a real chance we will not have a new hospital any time soon. To be blunt this is a really, really serious mess, one that impacts on us all.
The Government has taken its eye off the issues that really matter: our doctors, nurses, support staff at the hospital and their patients. We now have an ever-increasing serious issue of doctors and nurses unhappy and or resigning from the Jersey healthcare system. We now have patients suffering as a result.
One must ask the Alliance-led Government what is more important: stainless steel and concrete or patients and staff?
The Planning inspector at the time of the previous government agreed the existing site was an appropriate site, once modifications to the plan were made. If we had proceeded down this route, all clinical facilities would have been completed by 2023.
Sometimes there is a need to take a very long look at what is in front of you and have the wisdom and strength of office to accept that one has made a mistake, something this government is clearly incapable of.
Alliance-led government – this is not just about winning the ‘fight'’ –it is about actually doing what is right for all our islanders.
Deputy Steve Luce
The Progress Party
