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I am saddened to make the following observations and comments regarding the current funding proposals and the project that is currently before the people and politicians of the Island.
Let us be clear, the current situation has been arrived at as a result of deep and profound failures by both elected members and civil servants charged with the duty to safeguard the health of the population. This neglect dates back to the completion of the Parade or Tubbs wing of the hospital and the failure to engage with a rolling programme of investment and improvement then proposed by, I believe, NHS consultants.
Moving forward, the States commissioned W S Atkins to produce an objective report on suitable sites for a new hospital. Please note that the consultants were not asked to produce a strategic plan for the future health and wellbeing of the Island based upon the existing facilities.
In brief, the report listed a selection of sites scoring in the 60% bracket and two scoring in the 80% bracket, the highest scoring was the People's Park and the second highest was the Waterfront.
Subjectively, the People's Park was never going to be accepted by the public, this left the Waterfront.
SOJDC initially claimed that their development of the site would yield far greater economic benefits than a hospital, this was never examined in detail, tested or subjected to any independent audit process, it was just accepted by those politicians responsible. When challenged the SOJDC and allies then claimed that due to climate change and rising sea levels the site was unsuitable due to flood risk, again this was never properly tested. Unfortunately this has been made irrelevant by the production of the Shoreline Management Plan, intended to protect vulnerable parts of the Island for the next century or more, far past the design life of the hospital.
This then brings us to the recent consultations and site appraisal exercise where just to be certain the Waterfront was excluded it was presented piecemeal as a whole selection of bite- sized sites and not as a whole, this was plain deceit and can only have been designed to mislead Members and the public.
The decision to force through the Assembly a vote of approval for the Overdale site in the absence of any details of the construction road, the loss of open fields, the destruction of homes, the demolition of Plemont ward, the removal of the Crematorium, the purchase of the Jersey New Waterworks Company headquarters (for demolition) and the callous eradication of the Bowls Club is deeply and profoundly morally corrupt.
The OBP that has now emerged clearly emcompasses all the ancilliary and enabling works and cannot have been unknown at the time of the debate, thus raising the spectre of whether the States Assembly was misled or deprived of this key information.
The current plans, such have been disclosed, propose a monolithic construction that only provides for an 'acute' hospital and not a 'general' hospital, it is also conditional upon the acceptance of a flawed and yet to be finalised Care Model. Such a concentration also goes against modern best practice regarding disaster mitigation and business continuity planning, it represents 'putting all our eggs in one basket', something the prudent amongst us might regard as extreme foolishness.
In contrast a phased and modular hospital development based upon the Waterfront and existing facilities and phased over a number of years would allow for continuity of health provisions over a number of years with no requirement for relocation to Les Quennevais and the attendant costs of that.
The benefits both from a health perspective and financially so heavily outweigh the disadvantages of the current proposal as to raise the simple question of why? and for whose benefit has this vast folly been created? it is certainly not for the people of the Island and future generations.
In closing, it is my submission that the OBC be rejected in whole and that any further expenditure be curtailed at the earliest opportunity.
Please have the courage and the moral strength to halt this juggernaut now. Andrew Le Quesne