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Ministers are refusing to disclose the estimated cost of their new multi-site hospital vision, claiming that sharing this information "was a factor in project failure" of the previous £800m Overdale plan – just weeks after it emerged that it is "very likely" to be more.
The comments from the Chief Minister and Infrastructure Minister came in a letter responding to questions from the Future Hospital Review Panel, a group of politicians tasked with reviewing the 'New Healthcare Facilities' project.
In it, Deputies Kristina Moore and Tom Binet outline their "strongly held view that publishing full cost information about previous projects undermined the commercial position with contractors" and claim that "it is imperative for certain financial details and information to remain confidential as it is likely to be critical to programme success".
They go on to say that "it is still one of our most important priorities to achieve best value for taxpayers’ money in delivering new healthcare facilities for Jersey", but claim that "this cannot be achieved unless we protect the island’s commercial position of the current programme".
The former ‘Our Hospital’ plan completed by John Le Fondré’s Government was budgeted at £805m.
However, a £30,000 review by Deputy Binet and Expert Adviser Alan Moore published at the end of 2022 concluded that price point is no longer achievable.
Instead, the 114-page ‘Binet Review’ said Jersey should look to a multi-site solution for its health facilities, which it estimated would cost nearly £170m less than Senator Le Fondré's plan at £635m.
However, the figures used to work out how much a multi-site solution would cost came from a document produced by the previous Government in summer 2021, and, by the review authors' own admission, “ignores inflation” since then.
At the time, Deputy Lyndon Farnham – who was previously the political lead on the 'Our Hospital' project – said that "there are no guarantees that the scheme will be delivered for less money than the approved plan" given the fact that "the suggested figure of £635m does not include contingencies for inflation and optimism bias".
Giving a statement on the progress of the New Healthcare Facilities plan earlier this month, Deputy Binet admitted: "...It is very likely that, over a 10-year period, the total cost of the new facilities will very likely exceed the total cost of the previous project. These are simply facts that we have to face."
However, he noted that the current plan would involve an additional 30,000m2 of space, compared to the Overdale 'health campus' proposal.
Funding for the 45,000 m3 Overdale acute hospital is due to be included in the next Government Plan, which covers spending between 2024 and 2027, inclusive, and will be debated in December.
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