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Spending on maintaining the island's ageing health facilities went over budget by £1.4 million last year due to the volume of "pressing" issues, it has emerged.
The money was drawn from two other projects which had not spent their budgets: £900,000 from a funding pot for new health equipment and other "minor" projects, and half-a-million from a project to create a new inpatient unit for people with complex learning disabilities which was put on hold.
Treasury Minister Ian Gorst signed off on the spending on 14 December, with a newly published report outlining the decision explaining that the "age of the health estate means there is high demand for replacement and refurbishment works, many of which are pressing".
The state of the current Health estate has been a contentious issue during the continuing wait for a new hospital.
In September, a consultant raised concerns that not enough was being spent on the "structurally deteriorating" General Hospital after flooding put a clinic room out of action.
Dr David Ng, a now retired gastroenterologist who was working at the General Hospital at the time, took to social media to share a photograph of a clinic room which was flooded by overnight rain.
@StatesAssembly Good morning. Update on the structure of the hospital. Clinic room closed again due to flooding from over night rain. #ineptitude #indecision #ill-informed #hoodwinked. We need a new (single site) hospital asap pic.twitter.com/bANHZSApn7
— David Ng (@JerseyGIdoctor) September 1, 2023
He said that the latest problem was illustrative of the wider issue of a hospital "deteriorating structurally".
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 Jersey 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.
Pictured: In 2022, the Health and Community Services Department scheduled 8,902 maintenance activities of which 5,404 were related to the General Hospital
In March 2023, the Health Minister revealed more details of work to maintain the ageing General Hospital while new facilities are developed – at a cost of £5 million per year.
Deputy Karen Wilson said that the annual £5m cost would address the most urgent building and infrastructure maintenance needs, as well as infection-control issues, until new health facilities were delivered.
However, former Deputy Chief Minister Lyndon Farnham, who held political responsibility for the hospital project before the 2022 general election, criticised the current Government’s "make-do-and-mend" approach to the "healthcare facilities crisis".
The extra £1.4 million was able to be redeployed for improvements to health facilities due to two funding pots not being fully spent: the 'Replacement Assets and Minor Capital Budget' and the 'Learning Difficulties Specialist Accommodation Project'.
The former is a rolling source of funding for equipment replacement and other minor capital expenditure requirements.
This spending was described in the Ministerial Decision report as "variable and sensitive to changes in supply chain lead times for high-cost items", meaning that £900,000 from this budget was not spent in 2023 and could be "redeployed to meet other heath priorities".
Meanwhile, the HCS Learning Difficulties Specialist Accommodation project to develop specialist residential accommodation facilities for islanders with learning difficulties is "under review pending the identification of a suitable site and work to ensure that the accommodation provides a sustainable solution aligned to leading care practice", as Express reported last month.
Pictured: The Aviemore learning disabilities accommodation project has been put on hold.
This lack of progress meant that the project was forecast to underspend by £900,000 in 2023, with £500,000 of the budget being transferred to the Health Service Improvements project.
However, the Ministerial Decision confirmed that "in line with the usual approach for Major Projects, funding not spent in 2023 will be made available in future years to ensure that the [Learning Difficulties Specialist Accommodation] project can be delivered in due course" which "may be achieved through the Government Plan 2025-28 or through end of year flexibility".
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