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Amid protests, political pressure and money chat, its been a long road to reaching a ‘final’ decision on the hospital site… but it seems that road has led to nowhere.
A new board set up by the Chief Minister has expressed wishes to take plans for a new £466million revamp of the current site off the table and reconsider alternative sites, calling the previous Council of Ministers’ decision-making process a “political mess.”
In a case of political déjà-vu, it now means that sites such as Overdale, Warwick Farm and the Waterfront could all be back in the running to become the island’s key healthcare site… and that means plans to do up the current hospital, which have so far cost £25million, risk being torn apart.
States Members are set to have a vote on whether to press ahead or start from square one shortly after the New Year, but they – like the general public – are sure to have a lot of questions.
Express answers some of them here…
Well, it was… But then an election happened.
Seeking reassurance that his predecessors’ plans for the Future Hospital were the right ones, new Chief Minister, Senator John Le Fondré, set up a ‘Future Hospital Policy Board’ to investigate how the decisions were made.
Assistant Chief Minister Constable Chris Taylor chaired it, while the Health Minister Deputy Richard Renouf was also involved, alongside other non-ministerial politicians.
After picking through hundreds of documents, and visiting two similar hospital developments in the UK, the majority of the team concluded that the current site was not the best fit for the new hospital.
The Health Minister said he doesn’t agree with all of their findings, however…
Not necessarily. The decision on whether to continue with the current plans or start afresh will be put to a vote in the States Assembly, likely in January next year, and they might decide to stay put.
Chaos and bloodshed… Well, sort of.
The Hospital’s Group Director Rob Sainsbury authored a report stating that building a new hospital elsewhere would lead the current one to struggle a lot in the meantime. Among other things, he warned of worsening infection control, slower emergency responses, more patients being sent to the UK for treatment, and poorer end-of-life care.
It could also mean a delay to the final new hospital completion date. The Board estimate that this will be six months and describe it as “a small price to pay for the significant long term benefits to the island’s Health Service that will then be valued for many generations to come.”
Amid protests and anger at the idea last time, doing so would be highly unlikely to receive public and political support.
The Board’s report notes that there was originally a “compelling case” for using the Park area, but the Health Minister agreed to scrap the idea after a challenge from the Constable of St. Helier, hoping that it would lead to increased support for the final proposal.
The Chief Minister also recently said that it would be difficult to get fellow States Members on board with the idea, joking in a Scrutiny hearing that there are 11 St. Helier deputies with the potential to vote against it.
It seems that certain sites’ current uses aren’t too much of a worry – indeed Warwick Farm was mentioned, despite now housing a new hemp farm.
Constable Taylor, a well-known supporter of the Waterfront as an option, said he was concerned that the area had only stopped being considered because of Ministers’ financial motivations.
Minutes of a meeting around the time show that Senators Ian Gorst and Philip Ozouf teamed up with the States of Jersey Development Company to argue for the withdrawal of the idea on the grounds that constructing the international finance centre and securing tenants for it was more important.
That’s one of the big issues. The States had already started negotiating with the owners of hotels, restaurants and other properties so that they could buy them to allow for the expansion of the current site.
Businesses in the area are also busy considering their next moves, so moving to an alternative site means they may have wasted their time – and potentially money too…
That’s a possibility, but there have been warnings that the current site is not “future-proof”, as its town location means there is limited space for it to expand into in line with population demands.
It’s also worth considering that the planning application to build on the current site has already been rejected once for being too large for its surroundings. We’re still waiting to hear the results of the independent planning inspector following the planning inquiry, who might suggest it gets rejected again.
That’s a tough topic. £466million (£396m plus £70m contingency funding) is the amount that had been budgeted for the build.
There’s a risk that the States might have difficulties financing the project if Jersey’s credit rating hit after Brexit, which is also expected to push up construction costs.
Delays in getting the project sorted also mean that costs are up by £1million per month.
That’s true, although the Board have optimistically stated that this will only be around six months. It’s hard to say with any degree of certainty how accurate that estimation is.
Again, hard to say. A survey said that the majority would support building at People’s Park – but that “majority” only equated to about one in five members of the workforce.
Brave or brazen? Dithering? A waste of time? That’s a decision for you.
What a mess: Report blows open site debate
Comment: "Our very own Christmas disaster movie has begun early"
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