During an exclusive behind-the-scenes tour of Jersey’s ageing hospital, the JEP witnessed first hand the poor conditions that staff and patients are experiencing on a daily basis.
From leaking stairwells to bathrooms being used as emergency storerooms, the standards in some areas are several years behind current UK guidelines.
And £2.85 million is being spent every year to ensure that facilities remain safe for patients and staff.
But Bernard Place, project director for the Health brief, who is part of the future hospital team, told the JEP that the Island could soon witness similar pressures that are currently plaguing the NHS.
Earlier this month senior doctors in the UK wrote to Prime Minister Theresa May warning that the winter pressure the NHS is currently facing could result in people dying prematurely. Due to the challenges, the NHS National Emergency Pressure Panel urged health trusts to delay non-urgent operations until the end of the month – meaning up to 55,000 operations could be deferred.
Leaks, blocked drains and struggling to find space for the ever-growing pieces of medical equipment needed for modern healthcare are among the issues that those that work at the Hospital struggle with on a day-to-day basis.
With Jersey’s growing ageing population, the burden on the Island’s healthcare service is only expected to increase in the coming years.
And pressure is mounting on Health Minister Andrew Green, along with the future hospital project team, after plans for the new build to be based on the current site, expanding onto Kensington Place, was rejected by the Environment Minister Steve Luce earlier this month.
Mr Place, a former nurse, said: ‘The need is getting more pressing each year as the demand is rising.
‘We are not experiencing the pressures that they are in the mainland at the moment. If we don’t do anything, we could.’
He added that Health continues to invest in the current Hospital to ‘keep it safe’.
‘In the past few years we have spent money on the intensive care unit, the chemotherapy unit and Robin Ward,’ Mr Place said. ‘We will continue to do that. We would be better off spending it something new.
‘It is like an old car. As much as you love your old car and spend money fixing it, there comes a point that it is better to get a new one.’
The saga of a new hospital has been rumbling on for six years, with numerous sites and ways to finance the £466 million being put forward.
Following Deputy Luce’s rejection of the plans due to the scale of the proposals, Senator Green stressed that he will not be looking at alternative sites for the new facility and would be providing an update on the new plans as soon as possible.
Deputy Richard Renouf, chairman of the Health and Social Security Scrutiny panel, said that he had asked the minister to complete the work on the new proposals ‘quickly’ and return to the States to explain how he thinks ‘he can fit a good hospital on the current site’.
‘There are copious amounts of paperwork on site assessment and no site is perfect,’ Deputy Renouf said. ‘There is a means of assessing the benefits and risks of each site and the experts went into great detail.
‘There has been a lot of talk about which site is best. The minister is not wrong to try to work on the site he has got because it did score highly but there might come a time, if he can’t get the planning permissions because it can’t fit with the Island Plan, that the balance might tip and we have to look at other sites.’
