Hospital plans published with six-month "slippage" in completion date

Wednesday 09 October 2024

Plans have been published for the new £710 million Hospital – with an estimated completion date six months later than was previously forecast.

The Government had previously put the completion date of the acute facility at Overdale as the end of 2028 – but this has now slipped to Q2 2029 in the published plans.

Health Minister Tom Binet said this date could continue to change because it is dependent on an array of factors, including how long it takes to secure planning for the major capital project – but he is "extremely hopeful" that process does not take too long.

Construction works are planned to commence as early as the beginning of the first quarter of 2025.

Pictured: The proposed new acute facility at Overdale.

While Express reported that the island's fourth hospital planning application had been submitted last month, the publication of these detailed documents and plans for the public to pore through represents another important step for the New Healthcare Facilities Programme, which involves building across several locations including creating a health village in St Saviour.

The application features over 300 documents.

The proposed building at Overdale will consist of a lower-ground, ground, first, second, and third floors – although there will also be a fourth floor for the hospital's plant.

The facility will provide a range of emergency and elective care services for islanders, including an emergency department, critical care, elective and emergency operating theatres as well as the majority of inpatient wards.

Its design was developed around a "campus" concept, and many of the materials used in the design were aimed to reflect Jersey, with some inspiration even apparently taken from Gorey Castle.

The emergency department will be located on the ground floor, with direct access for ambulances from Westmount Road.

Additionally, at 51,000m2, the facility is two-thirds the size of the previous Government's controversial Overdale plans that were ultimately abandoned.

Speaking to Express this morning, Deputy Binet noted that reduction, saying that he was "extremely hopeful" the application is dealt with at a pace, "because it is straightforward, it is very detailed, and it is a reduction on what was a very big building, all things that I think people welcome".

Pictured: Health Minister Tom Binet said that he was "extremely hopeful" the application will be dealt with at a pace.

Explaining the change in completion date, he said: "We were looking at end of 2028 originally, so there might have been some slippage to that. But that date might also be brought forward once again. That is an estimated date, and we are several years out.

"Certain things are dependent on how long it takes to get a planning permit and so on, and those elements will change the dynamics of it."

He agreed that the six months could be treated as a kind of "buffer".

On publishing the application, he said: "I'm delighted. I can't think of anyone that's been terribly critical of these plans, it seems to have been received well by all parties, and most people just want us to crack on with it and that's what we're going to do.

"Getting the planning application in within a few weeks has been pretty close to what officers said they would do on what was a pretty ambitious timetable in the first place, so I think they have done very well."

Deputy Binet previously told Express that he had his "fingers crossed" that the scheme would be deliverable politically, but added that he was "very hopeful".

Deputy Elaine Millar, who is responsible for the £710 million project's funding, warned the Hospital Review Scrutiny Panel more recently that it would have to remain within budget.

The controversial saga has seen more than £130 million spent so far across multiple projects spanning different Governments.

The development of the 'Our Hospital' project between 2019 and 2022, which would have seen a single-site hospital at Overdale, accounted for £83.8 million of this spending.

However, the plans for an £800m health campus at Overdale were ultimately scrapped in 2022 following a review by Deputy Binet, who was Infrastructure Minister at the time.

Deputy Binet deemed that the campus was “no longer feasible”, citing rises in inflation, borrowing rates, global economic instability and reopening debate over the possibility of a multi-site solution.