'Too much secrecy' on £710m hospital costs - panel

Deputy Jonathan Renouf is chair of the Hospital Review Panel that has asked the government for more information

The government needs to be more transparent about the cost of building new healthcare facilities, a panel scrutinising the project has said.

The Hospital Review Panel has submitted an amendment to the government budget asking for a breakdown of the £710m ministers have said will fund the building of an inpatient hospital at Overdale and phase 1 of building facilities at Kensington Place and St Saviour.

Chair of the panel deputy Jonathan Renouf said the government was covering the costs in "too much secrecy".

Health Minister Deputy Tom Binet said it didn't make commercial sense to share the figures but he was committed to giving islanders "good value for money".

The States will vote on whether to accept the panel's amendment in the assembly debate on the budget, scheduled for 26 November.

Renouf said the panel didn't want to slow down the building of healthcare facilities but it was important to understand how costs are being controlled.

He said: "We're just saying give us the figures for the other parts of the project at St Saviour, at Kensington Place.

"So that we can judge whether they represent good value for money, whether it's part of a coherent plan for health facilities, whether it stacks up in the longer term for what the island needs."

He said without a clear idea of how much each part of the project cost there was a risk money could be moved around without people knowing.

"You could never know that Overdate had gone over budget, or one of the others had fallen by the wayside and was no longer being progressed," he said.

Jill Bartholomew said the latest planning application for healthcare facilities was "completely overwhelming"

Jersey resident Jill Bartholomew also has concerns about how transparent the government has been about building new healthcare facilities.

She said she had tried to understand the latest planning application but found it "completely overwhelming".

"I think if it is going to be as complex as this, there should be a number of open meetings where the public can raise questions," she said.

She said she was worried the public have heard "little or nothing" about the cost of facilities at Kensington Place and St Saviour.

She said: "They [government] think that people are just going to say get on with it regardless... and they're relying on that - that there won't be too many questions asked".