New hospital labs to get samples via underground tube

Saturday 11 November 2017

Further details are emerging about how the new hospital will work, including sending patient's samples from one building to another through a pneumatic underground tube across Parade Gardens.

After months of wrangling Health is planning to build a new multi-million pound hospital on a site adjacent to the current one. Whilst the work is being carried out a number of departments will have to move out, some of them permanently.

The plan is to demolish Westaway Court – currently doctors’ accommodation – on the far side of Parade Gardens – and to put pathology and 'out patients' in a new building which will go up on the site. The move is part of a chain which also involves the Limes – a former care home near the tunnel - being developed and used to house medical staff who’ve been ousted by the Westaway development.

Pathology is one of the departments being moved because the sensitive kit it uses might be affected by vibrations from the construction work. According to Health Minister Senator Andrew Green the move is also a timely one because, “the labs are very old and not up to scratch."

Yesterday, questions were raised at a Scrutiny Panel hearing over how samples would get from the main hospital site to the new labs across a busy road and through the park, but were told they would be sent by an underground “pneumatic tube.”

There were also concerns about where elderly or infirm patients were going to park if they were attending the new 'out patients.' At the moment the department is in the Gwyneth Huelin wing at the back of the hospital near Patriotic Street multi-storey and there are six dedicated disabled parking spots. Whilst the plans have still to be finalised it’s envisaged the new department will have 14 disabled parking spots, two spaces for dropping off and collecting, and a new dedicated bus stop.

Plans to build the new hospital are now at a critical stage. An independent planning inspector has just held a public inquiry and is expected to produce his report by mid-December, and the States have yet to debate Treasury’s scheme to fund the building.