HSC President vows to fight for hospital funds

Thursday 20 April 2023

Guernsey's Health President has said the States would be foolish to drop the hospital modernisation plans from the priority list for funding and he's hoping to persuade other deputies to support him in keeping it in the running.

It's after major plans to further modernise the Princess Elizabeth Hospital were confirmed as unlikely to go ahead under proposals announced by Policy & Resources this week.

P&R has been reviewing what major projects should happen in the wake of their Tax Review proposals being rejected earlier this year, which meant the States financial black hole is seen as a growing problem which requires drastic measures to contain. 

P&R wants to continue work on certain projects, including the building of a new post-16 campus at Les Ozouets but the second phase of work at the PEH has been labelled a 'pipeline' project, even though Phase 1 of the work is well underway.

Pictured: The next phase of work at the PEH has not yet been cost approved.

The work already underway will continue, but as Health had submitted plans for the second phase which were £15m. more than originally expected it has been reduced in priority.

In total, the original capital programme was expected to cost £460m., but costs in the construction industry have since shot up, with that impacting items like the hospital modernisation and transformation of education projects in particular.

Phase Two of the PEH modernisation plans includes the construction of a new three-storey extension that'll hold four new theatres and space for various services to be re-shuffled around the building. 

Deputy Al Brouard, HSC President said he is "obviously disappointed by the news" and reiterated comments made by his committee yesterday when they said they would try and persuade their fellow politicians to keep the PEH modernisation project at the top of the priority list.

"Our committee has already spent a lot getting the project ready," he said. "It's split into two phases, the first phase is well underway and phase two will give us further benefits. We've already invested £7.5m into phase two so it would certainly be foolish to pull away from a project we're already invested in."

Deputy Brouard again reiterated how health is an important priority for the island as a whole and how the PEH modernisation plans have been designed to offer many improvements.

"Phase two will provide us with more theatres so that more surgeries can be performed. That will also help to clear our backlogs. We'll have better orthopedic units which is something we need. There are a whole host of items in phase two which we need.

"We'll be able to provide better private facilities which is an income stream for health too.

"It's all very important. You only need to look elsewhere at Jersey and the UK and see how important it is with them investing in their health infrastructure."

Deputy Brouard was slightly reassured by the P&R statement issued earlier this week - he feels the door is still open to moving the hospital plans up the priority list.

He acknowledged that increased expenditure on health is a major factor in public finances being so precarious which is why he defended his decision to vote for GST earlier this year.

"I voted in favour of GST and P&R's proposals to improve funding to provide services which we need," he said. "I was always against GST but I was persuaded by the arguments that we need to do more and we need to pay for it."

Pictured: P&R's proposals for which capital projects should go ahead and which should be delayed.

P&R said its plans for deferring some of the island's capital projects could reduce spending by between £150m to £200m this term.

One of the factors in P&R’s thinking on pressing ahead with the education build instead of the hospital was the fact that the Transforming Education Programme was already on the road to implementing new staffing structures for the new secondary structure of three 11 to 16 schools and a separate sixth form college. 

Staff have moved out of Les Ozouets Campus pending its redevelopment, and construction work is likely able to start relatively soon following the July debate, should the States approve the reworked capital portfolio.