Bobby Dean MP tables St Helier amendments to Health Bill

Bobby Dean MP has submitted two amendments to the Heath Bill (New Clause 88 and 89). He is calling on the Government to reassess St Helier’s wait time for a new building in light of the growing pressures on the Maternity Unit and A&E. 

New Clause 88 would require the Secretary of State to publish the criteria, input data and scoring mechanism used to determine the prioritisation of schemes and their allocation to waves within the New Hospital Programme. Whilst the input data was obtained from publicly available sources, reports are currently not publicly available.

New Clause 89 would require the Secretary of State to review whether hospitals experiencing significant estate failure (such as issues uncovered at St Helier’s women’s health unit ADD LINK) are being appropriately prioritised within the New Hospital Programme, and to ensure that such hospitals are treated with the same urgency as RAAC-affected hospitals.

Plans for a new hospital building for St Helier were delayed until the 2030s after it was discovered that the previous Conservative government did not allocate any money to the scheme.

Bobby Dean MP said,
“It was brilliant to secure £57 million to extend A&E at St Helier, but other parts of the hospital are in real trouble.

“The problems we are now seeing in the Women’s Health Unit show why St Helier simply cannot wait until the 2030s for a new building.

“I want the Government to look again at how hospitals are prioritised and recognise the urgency of the situation at St Helier.

“I am doing everything I can to bring forward plans for a new hospital building and secure the long-term investment St Helier has been promised.”