Both the Friends of Our New Hospital group and the Future Hospital Review Panel have criticised the project team and the politician spearheading the scheme, Deputy Chief Minister Lyndon Farnham.
New images published by the project team yesterday showed a slightly smaller hospital incorporating more landscaping and having a lesser impact on the St Helier skyline, but both the ‘Friends’ group and panel chairperson Senator Kristina Moore said it was the funding for the scheme that was their biggest concern.
In the next sitting of the States Assembly, Members will be asked to support proposals for up to £756 million in borrowing as part of a total cost for the Overdale project of £804m.
Peter Funk, interim chairperson of Friends of Our New Hospital, said his group supported the amendment lodged by Senator Moore’s panel to limit the project budget to £550m and cap the borrowing element of this funding at £400m.
‘We strongly support the Island’s need for a new hospital, but Senator Farnham and the Political Oversight Group he heads have completely lost control of the project,’ Mr Funk said, adding: ‘The budget proposed has shot up from £466 million [under previous plans for the hospital to be built in Gloucester Street] to £804.5 million without explanation and includes
excessive contingencies, overheads, contractor profit and
related costs that are unjustifiable.
‘In addition, the Political Oversight Group wants to burden us all with £756 million in debt to pay for it.’
Mr Funk added that he was concerned that plans for the scheme were not yet finalised, 2½ years after Overdale had been put forward and less than two weeks before the funding debate.
‘What we’ve seen this week gives the impression that this scheme isn’t at all settled,’ he said.
The Future Hospital panel will publish a report next week on the eve of the funding debate.
‘We are concerned about the lack of restraint that the government has imposed on this project,’ Senator Moore said.
‘Most people would welcome the slightly scaled-back project shown in the new visuals, but when we had the opportunity to question the project team, we were told there was very little cost difference,’ she added.
The review panel’s report will include comparisons with 13 UK hospital schemes, showing that the projected cost of the Jersey project was 21% higher than the median cost from the UK, Senator Moore said.
She added that she was very concerned about the ‘speculative’ nature of the government’s funding proposals, relying on continued high returns on investment in equities and potentially saddling future generations of Islanders with a high burden of debt.
Ahead of the States funding debate, Friends of Our New Hospital intends to hold rallies and other awareness-raising action on Saturday 2 October and Tuesday 5 October.
