Jersey feels the pain over hospital site

States members in St Helier this week voted to abandon plans to build a new hospital at a cost of £466m. in Gloucester Street and look again.

This is despite £41m. having already been spent on the project so far, at least £27m. of which will never be recouped.

Jersey States members who complained that, after years of ill-tempered wrangling, the island was going back to square one were told that the island had never left it.

It is a sorry mess, and one that the Guernsey government would do well to learn from.

Thankfully, Health & Social Care in this island appears to have got its ducks lined up with a comprehensive phased plan which already has the backing of Policy & Resources.

It has the right site at the PEH, although it is getting tighter for space with each generation, and there is a growing recognition that Guernsey needs to be spending more on its infrastructure and capital projects if it is not to create a development lag that will be difficult to overcome.

Given that both Guernsey and Jersey are at the ground floor of major health projects it would seem sensible to examine what opportunities there are for working together. A shared facility here and there might save the islands millions.

HSC makes only a passing reference to that possibility in its modernisation policy letter. A single paragraph under ‘other related matters’ says that the recently established Channel Islands Joint Working Group for health and care will explore ways to work in partnership with Jersey.

With similar challenges of rapidly rising health costs, ageing populations and a matching desire to ‘transform the landscape’ of their health and care services it does make sense.

However, any great enthusiasm for co-operation has to be tempered by the ensuing chaos over where to site Jersey’s new hospital.

Guernsey cannot afford to put its development on hold while it waits for politicians across the water to make up their minds.