A REHABILITATION ward at Overdale will be relocated to a St Helier care home while construction of the new hospital is under way.
Infrastructure Minister Andy Jehan told States Members this week that the government intended to move the 16-bed Samarès Ward to part of St Ewold’s Residential Care Home for up to nine years while work progresses towards delivering the New Healthcare Facilities Programme.
The St Ewold’s home has 20 bedrooms which all have a single en-suite toilet and shower room, as well as access to gardens, patient dining, activity and sitting rooms, parking spaces and a staff room and office spaces.
The relocation, according to the government, is a “key enabling move” to allow for full demolition to take place at Overdale, where the new acute hospital will be constructed, as proposed in the project.
It was decided in September that the Samarès rehabilitation ward – the subject of controversy when it was closed and moved to the General Hospital before the decision was reversed – would remain at Overdale until further studies were completed and alternative facilities were identified.
In December, work to demolish dilapidated and unused buildings at Overdale began.
Health Minister Tom Binet, who was Infrastructure Minister at the time, said he was “hopeful” that the construction of the new acute hospital would begin next year, if the States Assembly backs the New Healthcare Facilities Programme.
The previous building project, known as the Our Hospital scheme, was abandoned in 2022 after a review, led by Deputy Binet, found the proposals for a single-site hospital at Overdale were no longer achievable within the £804.5 million of funding approved by the previous States Assembly.
The government is instead seeking to build healthcare facilities over several locations, including Overdale, Kensington Place and the current Gloucester Street site.
