blog.gov.jeWith the lodging and publication of the Proposed Government Plan (2024-2027) last week, Islanders will want to understand the full costs of developing the new healthcare facilities that Jersey urgently requires.
Spend to date and value across all hospital schemes
Our focus now is to take advantage of the knowledge and assets acquired in previous schemes and to move forward with the building and delivery of the Overdale Acute Hospital, whilst progressing with plans for other facilities to complete the provision of a comprehensive, fit for purpose, healthcare estate.
By the end of 2023, £182.1m will have been spent on developing a new Hospital. This sum covers three different schemes, over an eight year period, and four different Governments.
Of this, up to £51.5 million is budgeted to be spent on the current ‘New Healthcare Facilities Programme’ (NHFP), by the end of this year. This figure includes £35 million spent on real assets including the acquisition of Kensington Place and completing the delivery of the Enid Quenault Health and Wellbeing Centre at Les Quennevais. If all goes well, not all of the £51.1m will have been utilised by the year end.
The remaining £130.6 million was spent during the previous Future Hospital and Our Hospital schemes between 2015 and 2022. It should be emphasised that much the intellectual capital and knowledge gained during these schemes has not been lost.
In addition, £25 million of this spend (on the ‘Our Hospital’ project) included the acquisition of assets that we can use in the NHFP scheme, including properties on Westmount Road.
2024 and beyond
This Government Plan is seeking States Assembly approval to spend a further £52 million in 2024. This spending would cover:
- The design and plans of the Acute Hospital at Overdale to get to RIBA Stage 4, including a planning application.
- Work at Kensington Place which will include some ‘temporary use’ ahead of a permanent facility on the site. This temporary use will be for health-related projects that benefit the hospital and its staff, for example, new staff wellbeing facilities.
- Demolition and works to prepare for development at Overdale.
- Costs of the central Government project team.
- Contingency to risk-proof the Programme.
The NHFP team continues to monitor expenditure very carefully and will try to minimise fees while delivering the necessary work to provide a robust proposition for debate by the States Assembly.
The benefit of requesting up to £52 million at this stage is so that we can ensure:
- More work can be done on the clinical and operational delivery plan for Phase 1 of the project – delivering the Overdale Acute Hospital. This will ensure any facilities are designed for the healthcare services that are needed by the Island.
- The Digital and Heath Care Model, and the Contracting and Procurement Model can be further explored, both of which will affect costs and affordability.
- Further work will also be completed on the revenue implications of the new healthcare facilities, to provide estimates of the anticipated costs of running the new facilities.
- Further work will be completed on the overall funding strategy for the whole of the Acute Facilities project. This will ensure that the best value funding strategy can be identified.
The current plan for the completion of the Overdale Acute Hospital, and meaningful progress on the Ambulatory Facility at Kensington Place and Health Village in St Saviour, is estimated to cost £675 million across the period of this Government Plan (2024 – 27), with £35m in 2028 to complete the Acute facility. There will be further phases of work necessary to complete the whole of the Healthcare Facilities Programme. However, by concentrating on the Acute Hospital, we focus available funding on the most urgently required clinical facilities.