Plans to withdraw £10 million of funding earmarked to ensure the General Hospital can operate safely whilst a new health facility is built present “a risk” to patients, according to a panel of politicians scrutinising the proposals for the island’s new health campus.
The funding – which was split into £5 million per year in 2026 and 2027 – was “allocated to ensuring the safety and operability of the General Hospital” in the Government Plan 2024-2027.
But whilst analysing the new hospital plans, the Hospital Review Scrutiny Panel learned that the funding was “rejected by the latest central Government finance team review”.
In a critical report published today, the panel said the decision “presents a risk to patients as well as to the healthcare system”.
Demand for improvements outstrips budget
It continued: “The demand for improvements to the existing General Hospital outstrips the available budget, due to a lack of decant facilities and access restrictions within the existing clinical environment.”
The state of the island’s current health estate has been a contentious issue during the continuing wait for a new hospital, with a Health Services Improvements Programme put in place in 2019 after a damning ‘Six Facet Condition Survey’ of the existing hospital site found a series of issues.
The £30,000 Government review of the ‘Our Hospital Project’ – which recommended scrapping the Overdale project in favour of a multi-site approach – dedicated an entire section explaining in detail the challenges facing the General Hospital.
More than 5,500 unexpected ‘ailments’ were identified in the year leading up the review’s publication in November 2022 – including asbestos, fire risks, sewage struggles, and building fabric issues.
In March 2023, then-Health Minister Karen Wilson revealed more details of work to maintain the ageing General Hospital while new facilities are developed – at a cost of £5 million per year.
At the time, she said that the funding would address the most urgent building and infrastructure maintenance needs, as well as infection-control issues, until new health facilities were delivered.
But it later emerged that spending on maintaining the island’s ageing health facilities went over budget by £1.4 million in 2023 due to the volume of “pressing” issues.
In today’s report, the Hospital Review Panel called on the Health Minister to publish details of the additional risks resulting from the withdrawal of the £5 million annual funding for General Hospital refurbishment works before the next Government Plan is lodged later this year.
Jersey “may not be able to afford” new hospital
The Panel, chaired by Deputy Jonathan Renouf, published its report today following a review of the government’s New Healthcare Facilities Programme, which involves building over several sites.
This includes the island’s new £710 million hospital at Overdale, for which a planning application was approved last week.
The report criticised the lack of clarity and transparency about the decision-making that has informed the plans, and an absence of workforce and procurement planning.
As a result, the panel is concerned that the island “may not be able to afford to build and operate the enlarged healthcare estate that is currently envisaged”.
Other areas of concern included a need for more detail regarding other aspects of the programme, such as plans for a health village in St Saviour and a new ambulatory care facility at Kensington Place.
“An ongoing lack of transparency”
Deputy Renouf said: “This scrutiny process has been focused on ensuring that what is being proposed is suitable for the island’s future healthcare needs and can be delivered affordably and to schedule.
“It is all very well wanting to ‘get things done’, but we need to know that what is being done is the right thing, and that is what the assurance process is designed to ensure.
“This is the largest capital project the island has ever embarked on, and the panel has major concerns that there appears to be an ongoing lack of transparency which means that the Outline Business Case does not meet the expected standard to justify funding decisions of this scale.”
The Hospital Review Panel made a total of 34 key findings and 20 recommendations.
You can read the full report online.
