{"id":679988,"date":"2026-07-08T07:59:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T07:59:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/679988\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T07:59:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T07:59:07","slug":"health-minister-blames-jersey-hospital-contract-delays-on-very-heavy-handed-civil-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/679988\/","title":{"rendered":"Health Minister blames Jersey hospital contract delays on ‘very heavy handed’ Civil Service"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jersey’s<\/a> Health Minister has told ITV News that he came under “huge pressure” whilst finalising a deal to build the island’s new hospital.<\/p>\n

Senator Tom Binet has criticised the machinery of government for slowing the timeline down, as a contract was signed just two days before the election<\/a> after months of negotiation and years of debate.<\/p>\n

At the time, the Department of Health and Social Care said that the deal was “within the financial envelope agreed by the States Assembly” – referring to the \u00a3710 million project budget.<\/p>\n

\u00a3710 million<\/p>\n

Total healthcare redevelopment budget<\/p>\n

However, that funding will also have to pay for the development of two other “major sites” – the Kensington Place ambulance station and St Saviour Health Village – which were not included under this contract.<\/p>\n

When announced, the department would not say how much the hospital contract with Bouygues UK cost, citing the reporting restrictions of an election period.<\/p>\n

A month later, Senator Binet said he had not yet considered when more information will be published but insists that some details will eventually be released. <\/p>\n

The Minister also rebuffed claims that he had not provided sufficient information to the previous Council of Ministers on the contents of the contract and the timing of its signing.<\/p>\n

He told ITV News that the detail he gave them was “very comprehensive” and that “they were left in absolutely no doubt as to what the key issues were”.<\/p>\n

Senator Binet stressed that the timing of the announcement, two days before last month’s election, was crucial.<\/p>\n

He warned that the construction company may have lost trust in the Government if it had failed to meet the agreed timeline.<\/p>\n

The Health Minister also made striking critiques of Comptroller and Auditor General Lynn Pamment.<\/p>\n

Senator Binet claimed she “intervened very, very heavy handedly” and that he came under pressure to complete due diligence before the contract was signed, something he disagreed with. <\/p>\n

“I don’t think it was reasonable for anybody to have been put under the pressure that I was put under”, he said.<\/p>\n

“The bit that disturbed me most was towards the end when, if I’d have bowed to the pressure, I’d have left signing until after the election.”<\/p>\n

The hospital has been under increased scrutiny in recent months after dozens of patients had operations cancelled <\/a>in heatwaves. The Medical Director pointed to broken air conditioning and other issues due, in part, to “older facilities”.<\/p>\n

Mary Venturini is Chair of the campaign group Friends of Our New Hospital. Speaking to ITV News, she voiced concerns about the lack of information in the public domain. <\/p>\n

“We know very very little”, she said. “We don’t even know the price of the contract … I would just love to see a date for all of this to begin.”<\/p>\n

When contacted for comment, Ms Pamment’s office referred ITV Channel to the annual Audit Plan, released in January. This year’s will include an analysis of the redeveloping of hospital sites.<\/p>\n

They also pointed out that the Comptroller and Auditor General operates “under the Comptroller and Auditor General (Jersey) Law 2014 and in accordance with a published Code of Audit Practice issued under that Law”.<\/p>\n

Want a quick and expert briefing on the biggest news stories? Listen to our latest podcasts to find out What You Need To Know…<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jersey’s Health Minister has told ITV News that he came under “huge pressure” whilst finalising a deal to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":679989,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[102,2960,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-679988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=679988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679988\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/679989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=679988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=679988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=679988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}