Could Gov generate revenue through its hospital laundry facilities?

Wednesday 05 July 2023

Hospital laundry facilities could be shared with hotels to help generate income to support patient care, the Economy Department's Chief Officer has suggested.

The comments from Richard Corrigan came as he answered a question on how the Government defined "value for money" during a hearing with the Public Accounts Committee, the panel of politicians which scrutinises public sector spending.

The Government's Central Laundry Facility is located at Five Oaks and provides laundry services for the hospital.

Mr Corrigan suggested that this service could also "take in laundry from hotels or other organisation as a means to utilise latent capacity that exists there and earn commercial revenue from that".

"We use our current assets more effectively, more efficiently, and create a return for Government," Mr Corrigan explained.

Elsewhere in the hearing, Mr Corrigan outlined the key risks facing the Government – including Jersey's "capacity and capability to respond to evolving changes internationally".

He told the Public Accounts Committee that it can be "difficult" to "attract and retain the right calibre of people" in a "relatively modest population" like Jersey.

Pictured: The Chief Officer for the Department for the Economy, Richard Corrigan.

The Economy Department Chief Officer described the island as having a "tremendous level of autonomy in our affairs with a States Assembly and onwards into the Government itself", but admitted that "being able to attract and retain the right calibre of people to help us uphold that level of autonomy" is "critical".

Mr Corrigan explained that this risk is mitigated through "strategic workforce planning" in which the Government seeks to "understand where we believe there will be gaps that emerge in our workface" to "fill those gaps in recruitment over time and in terms of development of our own team".

He also told the Public Accounts Committee that the current labour marker is "very competitive", but added that he believes that the Government has "moved a long way" with its employee offer – with opportunities for flexible working and compressed hours helping "enormously" with staff retention.

Despite this, the Chief Officer for the Department for the Economy admitted that the Government still loses staff but explained that it is important to consider "regretted losses" compared to "non-regretted losses".

Pictured: Mr Corrigan said that he believes the Government has "moved a long way" with its employee offer.

When asked to clarify the difference, Mr Corrigan said that "a regretted loss would be a high-performer leaving the organisation because they feel their future is better served somewhere else, so you’re really losing a key element of the department or function". 

He added that he would class "very few" of the staff members leaving the Government as "regretted losses".