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New Healthcare Facilities Programme needs better staff engagement

​On Friday 24 March, the Future Hospital Review Panel questioned the Minister for Health and Social Services, Deputy Karen Wilson, and the Minister for Infrastructure, Deputy Tom Binet on progress towards the replacement and development of new healthcare facilities for Jersey.

The Panel heard that continued efforts would be made to engage with healthcare staff following low levels of attendance at workshops held for employees about the New Healthcare Facilities Programme. 19 workshops were held over a week in March and were attended by 59 members of staff. Deputy Wilson acknowledged that the number was low, and staff were tired and 'concerned that their time was being taken up to contribute to the process again.'

The Panel also sought detail on the governance of the Programme and plans for the location of particular services. Key points while questioning the Ministers were:

• a survey of the General Hospital at Gloucester Street costing £40,000 is to be published shortly. It is the first survey of the site since 2019
• the Minister for Infrastructure wants to maximise the footprint of the Gloucester Street site, and expressed an interest in properties at either end of Kensington Place to enable such expansion
• engagement with healthcare staff to date has not been sufficient to be deemed representative of the workforce and more needs to be done to engage with staff and to codify their feedback as part of development plans
• it was confirmed that the Government's intention is to use the facilities being developed at the former Les Quennevais School over the long term, for approximately 20 years.

The Panel flagged a number of areas of concern with both Ministers during the hearing, including:

• the need for the New Healthcare Facilities Programme team to acknowledge and mitigate any risks to the project associated with the recent departure of the Chief Nurse and the Chief Officer for Health and Community Services and the Chief Executive of the Government of Jersey
• that lessons learned from the previous Our Hospital Project were still being documented while the current New Healthcare Facilities Programme is already under way
• the extent of any road works necessary to enable access to the Overdale site and the likely impact of any such changes on both the road, its users, and the nearby residents are yet to be confirmed.

Following the Public Hearing, Chair of the Future Hospital Review Panel, Deputy Sam Mézec, said: 'There is clearly a significant amount of work still to do to ensure the necessary engagement with healthcare staff to enable the overall long-term success of the New Healthcare Facilities Programme and it is concerning that so few have provided their comments and feedback to date. The Panel will continue to monitor the Government's engagement with staff, stakeholders and the public in relation to the plans for the facilities and for each of the sites at which they are likely to be located.'