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To whom it may concern,
I have watched the whole hospital fiasco, with increasing horror. I trained and am qualified nurse, at St Thomas's hospital London in the early eighties, and also qualified as a midwife and worked in Salisbury, Winchester and the old Jersey Maternity hospital in St Saviours road, so I have thought a lot about this project. There are a few points that I would like to make.
Firstly, the powers that be keep talking about A world class Hospital' . We are a small Island. We do not need a world class hospital, but just a functioning General Hospital. Leave the 'world class' to the Centres of excellence, the teaching hospitals like the London teaching hospital that I trained in. These hospitals are in areas of huge populations and do pioneering work and attract the best medical staff from all over the world. I doubt that these staff would want to come to Jersey to further their career.
The States members talk of this World Class Hospital, however nobody talks about staffing it. I had the misfortune of spending ten days in the General hospital three years ago and one of the things that struck me, was that there were a lot of agency nurses. I noticed this, as they were wearing different uniforms. On questioning some of them, I learned that they had been flown in from the mainland, no doubt at great cost. In other words getting permanent staff over here, with the cost of living being so high is a big problem. It is no good having a very expensive shiny new building, if you cannot staff it. Also I don't think that just because it is new that it will attract people over here to work in it. Housing and living cost are too high for that.
I believe the estimated cost so far will be eight hundred million, maybe rising to a billion. This is far too high. I cannot understand this for a hospital, where the new care model is moving a lot of provision into the community. I also do not understand this, given that similar new hospitals on the mainland have cost far less. It is a terrible debt to burden the younger generation with.
The Overdale site seems to be a very tricky site regarding access, the historical significance of parts of Westmount, the loss of the Bowling Club and the difficulty of the road itself and the crematorium problem. I am also surprised that the compulsory purchases are taking place, before planning permission has been granted.
To sum up I don't think that the money should be borrowed and spent. It is far too much. I think that the Stares should cut their loses and start again, or are they tied into a contract that they cannot get out of.
Thank you for allowing me to have my say. Ann Morgan