Calls for "greater level of transparency" about hospital costs

Tuesday 14 November 2023

There is "no certainty" that the new multi-site hospital will cost less than the scrapped "unaffordable" single-site project, according to a report published as as part of an ongoing review of the Government’s new hospital plans.

Presented on Friday, the Future Hospital Review Panel's interim report produced 42 key findings and 16 recommendations to Government.

As well as expressing worries about the "apparent lack of Ministerial consensus" regarding new hospital plans, the report raised concerns about the dearth of information available to States Members about the overall cost of the full programme – and whether the ‘New Healthcare Facilities Programme’ will actually be more affordable than the single-site 'Our Hospital Project' approved by the previous States Assembly.

Ministers have previously refused 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.

However, the recent report recommended that the position on publishing the full cost range of the entire Government Plan debate is reconsidered.

Pictured: The Future Hospital Review Panel's chair Deputy Sam Mézec called for a "greater level of transparency" from those in charge.

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.

Pictured: Deputy Lyndon Farnham was previously the political lead on the former 'Our Hospital' project.

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 year, 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.