Blog: Jersey's hospital - it's Groundhog Day all over again!

There's always one story that refuses to go away. For Jersey, it's the new hospital.

Back in 2011, I reported on a £293 million plan to build one.

It was refused planning permission in both 2018 and 2019, by which time the price tag had increased to £466 million, and here we are in 2020 talking about getting things off the ground again.

Things are a little different this time, with a new political group to oversee things, a new project director, and - frankly - a new urgency to get on with it as the General Hospital is crumbling and costing tens of millions to keep fit for purpose.

A £30 million deal has been agreed with a consortium of builders and designers to get it to the planning application stage next year, but my sources say the budget this time around could be closer to £600 million.

And it won't welcome its first patient until at least 2026.

The latest application was effectively derailed by the 2018 General Election, and a new crop of politicians not wanting a hospital built on the site of the current one.

We're promised a new shortlist of "two, three or four sites" next month, and a States Assembly debate to give it the green light (or otherwise) by November.

Even with a lot of luck and a fair wind, building work is only due to start weeks before the next General Election in 2022, which means there's every chance we'll see Groundhog Day all over again as a new class of politicians unpicks the work done by then.

Last time around that meant nearly £30 million went down the drain.

Whether there's the political appetite to be seen to waste money in the same way this time is the great unknown.

In the meantime, staff and patients have to make do with an out of date facility, and both the project team and construction consortium will be hoping Jersey's politicians can this time show some backbone and actually keep to their decisions.

History says that is not a given.