Consultant speaks out on patient “dangers” of £466m future hospital on current site

Tuesday 28 August 2018

Building a new hospital on the current site could endanger patient recovery, lead to “workforce fatigue” and even force staff to leave, a respected surgeon has said.

The urgent warning came from Consultant and colorectal surgeon Dr Miklos Kassai, who conducts both routine and life-saving operations on a near-daily basis.

Dr Kassai was appointed back in 2013, helping to dramatically reduce the number of islanders needing colorectal cancer treatment in the UK.

But over the past five years he says he has noted a degradation in the state of the hospital, which he believes now needs to be urgently replaced – but not on the current site.

Speaking to Express last week following the launch of a petition in favour of allowing hospital workers a vote on the final site, he argued that the hospital was already “barely fit for purpose, and with the projected growth in population…will be unsuitable in the next few years.” This opinion, he said, was shared by many members of the hospital who feel that building on the current site is not the “fastest” or “cheapest” option. 

Pictured: Dr Kassai is throwing his weight behind a petition by patient Dave Cabeldu to allow hospital workers a vote on the final site.

Nonetheless, he said that concerns were running highest over the safety of doing so. 

The States' current plan is to allow the hospital to remain in operation while the new building is constructed.

“Noise, vibration and dust can and will be minimised or we are told eliminated. However, it is difficult to accept. The fear is that it will be a problem and at that point it will be useless to say I told you so. We will be forced to put up with this as there will be no other way but to run forwards.

“The length of the project is 8 years. It is not only the fact that nobody likes to work on a building site, we are also worried for our patients. They and their visitors need a nice, calm, relaxing atmosphere in order to get better and that is difficult to imagine on a building site,” the consultant commented. 

And those risks also extend to the workforce, Dr Kassai explained. 

“Workforce fatigue can lead to lapses in care and significant problems with recruitment and retaining qualified personnel. We are struggling with this as it is. It has already led to the resignation of experienced people. Further deteriorating the working environment risks a mass exodus and eventually a serious decline in patient’s care. This problem has been identified as the highest risk in the new hospital project.”

He’s therefore now throwing his weight behind a petition launched by his patient and local campaigner Dave Cabeldu, and is urging islanders and health workers alike to support it. He'd even go one step further, however, by putting the question to all islanders.

“Despite all the above arguments the building can not be delayed much further. We don’t have much time to decide. The problem is that it has been over politicised and full of emotions. The only democratic way I see out of it is to put this question to the referendum... We should identify 3-4 suitable sites (we have them already) and put it to the good people of Jersey to decide.” 

In the week since its launch, the petition is already over halfway to securing an official response from the Health Minister, Deputy Richard Renouf, with more than 600 signatures. If it gets 5,000, States members will have to debate the idea.