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The 'Topping Out' ceremony for Phase One of the hospital redevelopment has taken place, with a warning that Phase Two must continue as planned or there'll be further problems further down the line.
The first phase of building work has seen the creation of a new critical care unit, with increased capacity from seven to 12 beds. There will also be a new Post Anaesthesia Recovery Unit with 10 beds (an increase of three from the current provision). Two of those beds will offer full Critical Care support if needed meaning additional surgeries can be carried out.
The second phase is planned to include further improvements at the Princess Elizabeth Hospital with a three-floor extension planned for near the current main entrance, while the main entrance itself is relocated and other facilities are rearranged and updated.
Pictured: The timeline for the different phases may be put back if the proposals to re-prioritise capital projects goes ahead.
This week, the contractor - Rihoy and Son - reached a milestone in the PEH project, which Chairman Gavin Rihoy said provided a time to pause and reflect on the work achieved so far.
"Topping out means we've reached the highest point in the building and it's traditional to pause for a moment to reflect on that milestone," he explained.
"It's where we wanted to be, it is a little bit behind (schedule) but that's for various different reasons. One of them is all about that learning curve and ensuring that business as usual can continue at the hospital. It is very different (to other building sites) because you have to be an awful lot more considerate than if you're working on a greenfield site or an empty building site which is there just waiting to be developed."
Pictured: Gavin Rihoy explaining what is happening at the PEH site before climbing to the roof for the Topping Out.
Mr Rihoy was celebrating yesterday, but he also said he was acutely aware that his team of 80 workers, with ten managers, from his own company and other subcontractors, may have to close the site down if plans to look again at funding the second phase of work at the hospital causes that part of the project to be delayed, possibly indefinitely.
He warned that if the second phase of the hospital redevelopment doesn't continue seamlessly on from the conclusion of Phase One, then there may be lengthy delays if the work is ever expected to resume again.
"...we've learnt the process of dealing with the hospital, and being prepared to stop when they need us to stop," he said. "It's working well and it would be a shame to miss the opportunity to have continuity into the next phase.
"...we'd have to get a different team back because you immediately redeploy hose people elsewhere and that's where you lose the efficiency," he explained.
Pictured: The 'Topping Out' was on Tuesday this week.
Jan Coleman, Clinical Director for the hospital redevelopment project, agreed that any further delay will be bad news for the island at large.
"Every member of staff in the hospital knows why we're doing this. We've been trying to do this work since 2011, and 2014 it's been acticve. It's been a long time in coming so they appreciate what the outcome will be for the patients, staff, the whole morale of the island. We've only got one hospital and this will make us deliver a very modern hospital which will help patients' outcomes and the patient is at the heart of this.
"We know in critical care we have to have it to support surgery and critically ill patients. We want to help them through that and back to their ward so everything we're doing meets the new medical criteria and the building regulations to do that."
Pictured: Work ongoing at the hospital site will see two new electricity substations installed, one of which will solely supply the hospital.
The situation is pressing said Mrs Coleman as the hospital isn't just being redeveloped for the sake of it.
"The hospital building is deteriorating," she said. "If we pause for Phase Two then we're going to have to spend money to keep the hospital live and operational, like Jersey's had to do.
"The building needs the upgrade and modernisation because it's not fit in areas. To make it continue we're going to have spend money anyway so it would make the whole project more expensive."
Pictured: Some of the building work underway will serve as a starting point for Phase Two of the redevelopment, if it is able to go ahead.
Ms Coleman and Mr Rihoy were joined by the political members of the committee for Health and Social Care at the Topping Out ceremony.
Deputy Tina Bury - the Vice-President of HSC - said yesterday marked a very important milestone which came at an opportune time to remind everyone of the important nature of the work.
"It's great to see how our contractors are keeping us on track, and getting us to the right places and it's really nice to meet the team and to see the really great work they're doing with our teams that are still running 'business as usual' alongside a building site," she said.
"What we've learnt from the contractor is that it's actually been a steep learning curve for them to work alongside live clinical teams and a lot has been learned. So if we down tools and take them off the site, all of that knowledge is going to be lost and have to be done again in who knows how many years."
Pictured: Education is given a higher priority for funding than Health in the latest capital projects list.
Deputy Bury said she doesn't like it being seen as a choice between funding Health or Education but in this case, Health should win.
"It's a shame that education and health have essentially been pitted against each other in this head to head way," she said. "I'd hoped to have maybe seen some alternative funding options come up because both are important, we know that. As vice president of health I'm backing this project and it was always planned to be a seamless transition and the benefits really come in Phase Two. there are some fantastic things in Phase One but to realise the full benefits of the project we need to go on to Phase Two and it's always been planned to just transition over."
If Phase Two is able to start immediately after Phase One is complete then the entire PEH redevelopment could be finished by 2028, said Ms Coleman. If it's not then there could be a decade delay or more.
That will come down to whether the States agree to lower the priority of the hospital in the capital projects funding list, or push it higher up the list.
Pictured: The Topping Out ceremony gave Rihoys a chance to explain what has been done and is still to do.
The Phase Two work will cost an estimated £150million, which is over the amount previously stated by HSC.
With the States not agreeing any meaningful revenue raising measures during the Tax Review earlier this year, Policy and Resources has said the island needs to cut its spending. That has led to a re-prioritisation of capital projects with future stages of the hospital redevelopment moved down to the 'pipeline' list.
However, Ms Coleman is hoping that the work can continue to build on the lessons already learnt through Phase One.
"It is difficult, but the relationship that we've built with Rihoys has made it so much more acceptable. The staff trust them, they trust us. If they've got a problem they call us straight away. We visit (affected wards) daily. Rihoys are doing the same. So we work with them, and if something is happening and they want to check 'what is this noise', 'how long will the noise be going on for', we can explain to them."
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