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The building and development of Jersey's long-awaited new hospital will have to stay within budget, the Treasury Minister has warned.
Deputy Elaine Millar, who is responsible for the £710 million project's funding, was quizzed by the Hospital Review Scrutiny Panel last week.
The controversial saga has seen more than £130 million spent so far across multiple projects spanning different Governments.
Pictured: Plans for the proposed acute hospital at Overdale were submitted last month.
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.
Under the new programme, it is estimated that the total cost to deliver an acute facility at Overdale and progress development of the future phases covering an ambulatory facility and health village will be £710m – a cost that was included within last year's Government Plan.
Pictured: Demolition work at Overdale is already underway in preparation for the new acute facility.
The Hospital Review Scrutiny Panel heard that the new facility is now at 'RIBA stage two', the third of eight stages for new buildings set out by the Royal Institute of British Architects.
Deputy Millar stressed: "I would expect capital projects to be managed within the budget that's allocated to them."
She continued: "People have got to stay within the public finance manual.
"And if people just ignore that and decide to put gold-plated taps, then that is not within the public finance manual."
The Treasury Minister added: "If there is any issue with that spend – if suddenly someone realised, and I don't believe this is going to happen, that they had underestimated quite considerably on the cost of bricks – that would be reported to me."
Pictured: Health Minister Tom Binet last week confirmed that the tender process to facilitate construction of the New Healthcare Facilities Programme had commenced.
States Treasurer Richard Bell said the next "key point" in the project would be the project going out to contract.
Mr Bell added: "Thereafter, it is largely for the project to manage, and the expectation will be that we do not get to the point of overspend."
Deputy Millar stressed that current health facilities were "no longer up to standards".
"I think the public want to see a new hospital. They want to see a new hospital pretty quickly," she said.
Deputy Binet revealed last week that the tender process to facilitate construction of the New Healthcare Facilities Programme had commenced.
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