The official opening of the Enid Quenault Healthcare Centre, planned for later this month, completes the successful move of almost all outpatient services from the old buildings at Overdale to the new centre at Les Quennevais. The successful move of out-patient services from Overdale to Les Quennevais, which was completed smoothly and efficiently in August, is the first stepping stone in the New Healthcare Facilities Programme (NHFC). >Read More
The official opening of the Enid Quenault Healthcare Centre, planned for later this month, completes the successful move of almost all outpatient services from the old buildings at Overdale to the new centre at Les Quennevais.
The successful move of out-patient services from Overdale to Les Quennevais, which was completed smoothly and efficiently in August, is the first stepping stone in the New Healthcare Facilities Programme (NHFC). Now that the old site at Overdale is almost empty, demolition of the derelict buildings at the bottom of the site, many of which are filled with asbestos, is scheduled to start later this month, to be completed by the end of the year.
How quickly the whole site can be completely cleared will depend almost entirely on the future of Samares Ward in the Westmount Centre on Westmount Road. The government is still not saying outright whether the Westmount Centre will be demolished. What the government has said is that it will not move the 14 rehabilitation patients out of the much-loved Samares Ward in the Westmount Centre until a suitable location can be found for them. It has promised that this will not be back to the General Hospital.
According to the Minister for Health it now seems that a possible solution for Samares Ward could be in the St Helier-owned residential home of St Ewolds. For those who know St Ewolds on Trinity Hill it would be ideal in numerous ways. It has the capacity to take the same number of patients now in Samares Ward in the new rooms at St Ewolds which have just been converted in the old nursery school.
St Ewold’s is within easy reach of the hospital and is already taking step-down patients from there. It looks out over the town and a wooded valley and has some spacious and well protected gardens in the centre of its large complex. If anything, its setting and location is more peaceful than Samares, especially now that Samares is the only service left on the derelict-looking Overdale site.
Once Samares moves, the rest could fall quickly into place, especially if demolition is already in progress on the derelict buildings. New plans for the acute hospital are needed but these are well on the way to development and the Functional Brief for the acute hospital is expected soon.
The new plans will have a smaller footprint than the Our Hospital project, which was pushed through in the last days of the previous government. They will not include the demolition of 14 residential buildings, the massive remodelling of Westmount Road, the destruction of the Bowling Club site and parts of People’s Park, all of which raised opposition to the Our Hospital plans. It is therefore hoped that they will obtain Planning Permission without the need for a public inquiry.
The timeline for the New Healthcare Facilities Programme is that the new plans will be submitted in spring 2024, construction of the acute hospital at Overdale will begin in 2025 and will be completed in 2028. Some optimists now feel that things could move even more quickly than this if the project to move Samares Ward to St Ewold’s goes ahead.
For more information or comments please email: Friends@ournewhospital.org.je
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