Health Minister Andrew Green has confirmed that after a £2.5 million research project boiled the list of sites down to a handful, his department will now go out to consultation with the public about the best way forward. He made the statement in the States Assembly this afternoon, and began by apologising to Islanders for the length of time it had taken to get to this stage.
The Minister said: “We must be satisfied that the final site, when selected, provides the best possible hospital for the people of Jersey.” He described the current Hospital as over-crowded and beginning to fail, and paid tribute to the current staff for “making do” despite decades of under-investment.
The four sites confirmed today are:
– Building a new hospital on the existing site, at a cost of around £600 million over up to 12 years.
– The People’s Park site, which would cost £450 million over six years.
– The Waterfront, which would cost £450 million over six years.
– The Overdale site, which would cost £450 million over six years.
Ministers have put together a compensation package for the People’s Park site that would see them knock down existing hospital buildings and turn them into a replacement park, and extend the Millennium Town Park to provide more green space for town residents.
But Senator Green also said that if the States vote in three weeks’ time to back St Helier Constable Simon Crowcroft’s proposal to rule out a hospital on the site, he won’t take the option forward.
He said that over the next four weeks his department would be putting all of the relevant information in front of Islanders, including a website with data and reports on each of the 40 sites that were originally considered.
After that, an eight-week consultation process will begin before a final decision is taken and a proposition goes to the States for debate.
And the Senator said that the process would not be a “spin exercise.”
“It is not a done deal,” he said.
“I am not actually going to say which of the sites I would favour. I will come out ‘anti’ doing this existing site, because I cannot justify chronically ill people that come in for dialysis or other treatment coming to a building site for 11 years, and spending £200 million more than a new building.”
And Senator Green also criticised Mr Crowcroft for stirring up what has become a high-profile campaign against a hospital on the People’s Park.
He said that they had spoken to the Constable at the early stages of the project – and he had indicated that he would play hardball to get the best deal he could for St Helier.
Senator Green said: “His exact words were along the lines that ‘I don’t blame you for looking at it, it won’t be easy if you go down that route and if you do it will cost you’.”