Project will become “unstoppable”
He said that once work on building an inpatient hospital at Overdale begins, the project will be “unstoppable”.
It would be 30% smaller and a floor lower than the previous ‘Our Hospital’ design, he added, and would not require major changes to Westmount Road.
Asked if he was concerned that this version of the decade-long search for a new hospital might be derailed by future governments, Deputy Binet replied: “Once we are committed to the acute hospital, I don’t think you’ll be able pull away.
“If we can get to that key point, I believe the programme will be unchangeable and unstoppable.”
Still no firm idea of cost
Also speaking at the Chamber of Commerce event, Treasury Minister Ian Gorst said he could not say what the entire ‘New Healthcare Facilities’ programme would cost, but he pledged that the inpatient hospital at Overdale would not be as much as the £804.5m budgeted for the previous project.
He added that the Government had to balance the need to share costs with taxpayers with the requirement to act commercially and not show its cards to bidding contractors.
CLICK TO ENLARGE: An indicative timescale of the Government’s New Healthcare Facilities programme.
This was after former Our Hospital Project head Deputy Lyndon Farnham had asked a question at the briefing, calling on Deputy Gorst to “come clean” on the total cost of the multi-site programme.
The Treasury Minister said he could not give a total budget, nor could he compare it to the previous project, because that would have now cost at least £1.1 billion after two years of rising inflation and interest rates.
A “spade in the ground” in the next three years
Deputy Gorst stressed that the current project offered the best opportunity to get “a spade in the ground” at Overdale within the next three years, which was key to the programme’s success.
He added that he did not think that the Overdale part of the programme would need another independent planning inquiry, due to existing permissions.
What’s in the plan?
Giving more details of the programme, which involves building an acute hospital at Overdale, an outpatients’ hospital in Kensington Place, and a ‘health village’ near St. Saviour’s Hospital, Deputy Binet revealed that the existing 1980s tower in the Parade could become keyworker accommodation.
Pictured: An indicative image of the Kensington Place outpatients hospital. The Government is keen to stress this is not the final design.
He added that blue-light ambulances would most likely drive to Overdale, with Westmount Road having a traffic light system on the hairpin bend to prioritise emergency vehicles. However, Kensington Place / Gloucester Street would include an ‘Urgent Treatment Centre’ for walk-in emergencies.
Rehab on the move…again
The rehabilitation unit currently at Samarès Ward at Overdale would move to the ‘Health Village’ destined for next to Clinique Pinel, he added.
He said: “Of real importance to the many Islanders who’ve suffered the horrors of a stroke, and the families who’ve cared for them, the St. Saviour site provides an ideal location for a new rehabilitation unit, to replace Samares Ward.
“I saw, first-hand, the damaging consequences of closing it during covid, for whatever reason they offered up.
“And I intend to make absolutely sure that we have an interim facility of no lessor quality, to use between the closure of the old ward and the opening of the new one.”
“The plan may not please everyone”
Talking about the overall programme, which runs until the end of 2031, Deputy Binet concluded: “The plan may not please everyone. But after ten long years, if we can spread the lowest possible level of discontent, over the widest possible area, we may, finally, get the facilities we need, in the sequence that they’re most needed, without pushing the island over the edge of a financial cliff.
“We have a really super team of experienced locals heading this up. They’re making very swift progress, using all the information gathered in previous schemes, and what we need now is the full support of as many people as we can get, from every sector possible.”