‘Many nurses do not want to live on site’

That is the view of a former States employee who was once responsible for finding accommodation for incoming nurses.

The States is pursuing plans to build staff accommodation on a green field in the grounds of the hospital after a debate last month.

During debate, Health & Social Care president Deputy Al Brouard warned of dire consequences for patients if the land was not used for urgently needed nurses’ accommodation, and it emerged that in determining the best location for a block of accommodation, sites within a radius of 500 metres had been given preference due to a desire for close proximity to the hospital itself.

However, speaking on condition of anonymity so as not to embarrass her current employer, the former accommodation booker said in her experience, living on the PEH campus was the last thing most nurses wanted, for various reasons.

‘It’s like being back at university – being in halls,’ she said. ‘Some of them have formed relationships with people – or had brought partners over with them, or wanted to bring partners over with them – and that wasn’t sustainable within the nurses’ accommodation. Some of them just didn’t like being on campus, basically – just wanted to be off exploring other parts of the island, living as a local.’

She also questioned the healthcare case for having many nurses living on site.

‘On a tiny island, does it really matter if you’re within 500 metres of the hospital, or two or three kilometres?’ she said. ‘It really doesn’t make any difference. There’s something called the major incident plan, so if there’s a major accident, staff are called in.

‘I’ve worked over here for donkey’s years and in all my time over here, that’s never happened, even during Covid. And if there was a major accident, the surgeons don’t live within the radius, so why should nurses have to?’

She said she was at a loss to understand why such a narrow focus had been placed on the PEH campus as being place where a the solution to an acute shortage of key worker accommodation lay.

‘I don’t understand it at all, particularly when they’ve got other sites that could be easily utilised like the King Edward VII or like the Castel Hospital site, or the various hotel sites which would be perfect for designing small units for people to live in and then commute by walking, bicycle, bus or shuttle bus.’

Some young nurses who were only intending to stay for a short period would find an accommodation block acceptable, she accepted. However, many who had been brought over from the Philippines and Finland had stayed, formed relationships and moved out of key worker accommodation.

Extending key worker accommodation across the island and connected to various housing sites was a much better approach, she said.

‘I think it’s much better to incorporate them into other units, so they’re living more within the community rather than just in a nurses’ commune.’