A CRITICAL report which found that Jersey may not be able to afford to build and operate its new hospital “contains inaccuracies”, according to the Health Minister.
Deputy Tom Binet this week published his response to a report from the Hospital Review Panel.
The 117-page document was published earlier this year following a review of the government’s New Healthcare Facilities Programme, which involves building over several sites.
This includes the Island’s new £710 million hospital at Overdale, for which a planning application was approved at the start of this year.
The report slammed the lack of clarity and transparency about the decision-making that has informed the plans, and an absence of workforce and procurement planning.
As a result, the panel raised concerns that the Island “may not be able to afford to build and operate the enlarged healthcare estate that is currently envisaged”.
The report casts serious doubts over the short- and long-term financing of the project, with financial oversight labelled “very weak and limited”.
Panel chair Deputy Jonathan Renouf said the outline business case for the scheme “does not come close to meeting the standard that Islanders have a right to expect for the largest capital project in the island’s history”.
Other issues in the report included a need for more detail regarding other aspects of the programme, such as plans for a health village in St Saviour and a new ambulatory care facility at Kensington Place.
In a response published this week, the Health Minister rejected 11 of the 20 recommendations, partially accepted seven and fully accepted two.
Deputy Binet said: “I understand the intended purpose of scrutiny panels acting as critical friends to ensure the best possible outcomes for Islanders.
“The panel’s report, however, contains inaccuracies and certain claims that may have caused unnecessary alarm for the public.
“Had the professional assessment been carried out in the context of a Jersey specific scheme, instead of assessing it as if it were a project for the NHS, the report would have been of greater impact.”
He added: “This is a business case developed for Jersey, aligned with its specific governance, financial planning, and healthcare requirements, rather than the NHS in the UK.”
Deputy Binet said that most of the accepted recommendations were “already partially complete” thanks to the “considerable progress” made since spring last year.
One recommendation asked the minister to publish more details about how the proposed new ambulatory care facility at Kensington Place will be used by the end of June.
In response, Deputy Binet said that it is “important to keep the exact makeup of the funding envelope at a high level” whilst the procurement process is underway.
The panel also called on the minister to produce an updated model to evidence the bed capacity at each of the proposed New Healthcare Facilities Programme sites.
But Deputy Binet said that there is “no evidence” to suggest that the current demand and capacity model is incorrect.
He added: “It is therefore difficult to understand the reasons that Hospital Review Panel is recommending further theoretical analysis at considerable cost to Islanders.
“The time for an update or reworking of the demand and capacity modelling for the Acute Hospital has passed.
“The new Acute facility has planning permission, funding in place and has been the culmination of hundreds of hours of consultation with clinicians about existing and future service provision: the most important point now is to move forward with delivery.”
