MORE than £43 million has been spent on consultants and other ‘professional services’ for the future-hospital project during the past three years, the Chief Minister has revealed.
In response to a written States question from St Helier Deputy Max Andrews, Deputy Kristina Moore said the government did not retain the ‘depth of skills and capacity’ to deliver the project, meaning that external support was needed.
She added that approximately £43.5m had been used to pay for design work, professional fees and consultants for the current iteration of the scheme since its inception in 2019.
The figure includes money paid to ‘cost-management consultants’ and other services.
Around £25m was paid to outside agencies for the previous hospital projects from 2011 to 2018.
Deputy Moore said: ‘The Government of Jersey does not retain the depth of skills and capacity to deliver a large-scale project such as Our Hospital on a permanent basis.
‘Indeed, it would not be practical given the very small number of projects we deliver on such a scale. This means that under normal circumstances professional-services support would be required to deliver large-scale projects.’
In September, the former political lead for the Overdale project, Deputy Lyndon Farnham, said that attempts to build Jersey’s new hospital over the past decade had cost almost £100m, without a single brick having been laid.
The saga took yet another turn when a review – recently undertaken by expert adviser Alan Moore – recommended scrapping the proposed single-site facility in favour of a hybrid model that would include the existing Gloucester Street site, adjacent land at Kensington Place and Overdale.
Infrastructure Minister Tom Binet, who commissioned the review, estimated that the smaller-scale project could achieve a potential saving of around £100m compared to the previous scheme, which has an approved £804m budget.
In an attempt to get States Members to stick with the single-site Overdale project, Deputy Farnham has lodged a proposition that – if approved – would prevent the government from abandoning that scheme’s plans until there was ‘certainty’ that the multi-site scheme was a better option both clinically and financially.
Health-related spending made headlines again earlier this month, when a response to a freedom-of-information request submitted by the JEP revealed that the annual bill for locum doctors in Jersey was forecast to be almost £2.5m higher than five years ago – totalling over £6m this year.
It also showed that spending on locum doctors within Health and Community Services had increased by 65% since 2019, when it stood at £3.85m.
Around £43.5 million spent on design, professional fees and consultants for the Our Hospital project since 2019
This includes the following services:
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Health planner and clinical design team
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Project management office
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Cost-management consultants
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Design quality assurance and ‘New Engineering Contract’ supervisor
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Property and planning fees consultants
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Design and construction team fees
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Pre-construction services agreement costs
