Government sets out multi-site hospital proposal

Standalone General hospital and Overdale Picture: JON GUEGAN. (35922355)

A MULTI-SITE option for replacing the Island’s existing General Hospital has been put forward by ministers.

Plans include an acute inpatient hospital at Overdale, and outpatient facilities at Kensington Place and Gloucester Street.

However, the draft feasibility study does not include any indication of the project’s cost.

The study outlines how new healthcare facilities will be developed in stages across the next eight years, with the aim of completing the work by the end of 2031.

The government aims to have a new Overdale hospital completed within the next five years.

Having acute facilities at Overdale is the government’s preferred option, which comfortably outscored an alternative scheme that would have kept outpatients at Overdale and redeveloped the existing town centre site as the inpatient facility.

Ministers have said the new scheme is lower-risk financially than a single-site approach, and would leave scope for future expansion and key worker accommodation.

They argue it would include smaller buildings than in previous schemes and not require substantial changes to Westmount Road, the Jersey Bowls Club or Westmount Terrace.

Having ruled out the ‘Our Hospital’ scheme as being unaffordable, the government has yet to give any idea of how much its latest scheme will cost, or whether any savings will be made on the £804 million price tag price-tag for the single-site Overdale option.

The previous government’s proposal was passed by the previous States Assembly but then placed on hold, and ultimately scrapped, by the new government following last June’s election.

Chief Minister Kristina Moore said their preferred option was ‘clearly’ the best way forward, having the best score from clinicians while minimising the impact on patients, and the public, during construction.

A month of consultation is due to begin on the proposals.

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