'Car crash' hospital scheme criticised by scrutiny

The project to upgrade and extend Guernsey's Princess Elizabeth Hospital has been labelled a "car crash" by the head of the island's scrutiny committee.

Deputy Andy Sloan said: "It shouldn't be beyond the wit of man to build some of this stuff in a simple, cost-effective manner without making a complete drama out of the whole crisis."

This week the Committee for Health and Social Care (HSC) announced it was scrapping the second phase of its hospital modernisation programme.

It also announced the scheme to build a new critical care unit was set to go over budget and cost almost £40m before it opens.

Sloan said: "You can't be spending £260m to £270m quid on something that was originally budgeted for £120m."

Officials estimated phase two of the hospital modernisation would now cost £237m and blamed inflation for the jump in costs.

"That's not to say lessons don't still need to be learned we'll still be doing the reviews," he added.

Earlier this year the Scrutiny Management Committee launched reviews of the roll-out of the electronic patients' management system and the hospital modernisation project.

Sloan said: "We've still got to figure out what on earth went wrong.

"We've got a few scrutiny reports in the gestation that they're due for publication shortly."

HSC president George Oswald said his committee got the first indication costs were spiralling out of control at the start of the year.

He has admitted the committee will now have to look at delivering parts of the upgrades to the hospital in smaller sections, starting with improvements within maternity services.

"The movement of Loveridge Ward [Guernsey's maternity ward] is number one priority.

"Second priority from my point of view is looking at theatre accommodation and how within a budget we have, how can we increase the theatre availability to enable us to try and tackle the waiting lists."

States of Guernsey chief executive Boley Smillie admitted the entire hospital modernisation project had been too broad in its scope.

He said: "At the core of these transformational programmes is the fact that right at the outset promises are made about timescales and budget and the benefits that will be delivered that aren't realistic."

He also blamed a lack of accountability within the civil service: "Nobody has had direct oversight, direct accountability for this project."

In the next few months he said, alongside HSC other committees, would appoint chief officers to improve lines of accountability.

HSC hope the new critical care unit (CCU) will be open by the middle of 2027, having initially being scheduled to open in 2025.

Problems with fire safety are now being worked on by contractors Rihoys.

When asked whose fault the issues were, deputy Oswald said that was still being decided behind the scenes. When pressed as to whether he would release the findings of those mediations, he said "probably".

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