David Cabeldu has set up an e-petition calling on the States to ballot all Hospital staff as he said they have not been consulted about where the £466 million facility should be built.
The 67-year-old from St Clement said that while spending time in hospital both as an in- and outpatient he heard from many workers who said they did not want the future facility to be built on the current site.
‘From porters to nurses and from anaesthetists to consultants, they don’t want the hospital being built on its own footprint, but noone has asked them,’ Mr Cabeldu, who underwent treatment for a mass in his stomach, said. ‘I didn’t find one member of staff who wanted it built there.’
Mr Cabeldu is a co-ordinator of campaign group Save Our Shoreline but has set up the e-petition on his own accord.
However, Save Our Shoreline has previously championed the Waterfront as a site for the new hospital and Mr Cabeldu believes ‘common sense can still prevail’ in finding a suitable plot for the facility.
The e-petition, which requires 5,000 signatures for it to be considered for a States debate or sparks a ministerial response if 1,000 people sign it, comes as Philip Staddon, an independent planning inspector from the UK, is due to hold a public inquiry into the latest plans for the new hospital next month.
Earlier this year former Environment Minister Steve Luce rejected previous plans to build on the current site due to the size and scale of the building.
The future hospital team have revised the plans and have now proposed building a wider six-storey building on the current site, extending onto Kensington Place, rather than the nine-storey building that was originally proposed.
Meanwhile, a panel has been set up by Chief Minister John Le Fondré to review six sites previously shortlisted for the £466 million facility – the People’s Park; St Saviour’s Hospital; Warwick Farm; Overdale; the Waterfront; and a dual-site option – as well as the current site.
Mr Cabeldu believes that before any more work is done on the project Hospital staff should be consulted and is urging Islanders to sign his petition.
He said: ‘Do you want a hospital to be built with the Hospital staff’s agreement? Do you want to go into a new hospital that Hospital staff don’t want in that place?
‘Would you not rather the experts decide whether or not the hospital is built on Gloucester Street?’
He said that if the ballot was a clear majority in favour of not building on the current site then the hospital should be built elsewhere.
‘Do you think if there was 80 per cent plus saying they don’t want it to be built there that the Health Minister would be able to give it his support?’ Mr Cabeldu said.
‘Do you think the Planning Minister would be able to give his okay?’
