Operational in more than 25 countries, the Madrid-based company was behind the building of the new Les Quennevais School, Jersey’s Police Headquarters and the redevelopment of College Gardens. 

Also bringing vast experience and expertise of building hospitals across Europe, including in Northern Ireland, Majorca and mainland Spain, FCC will spearhead a consortium to build Jersey’s new hospital. The joint venture, a new company called ROK FCC, has been given preferred partner status by Jersey’s Council of Ministers and will sign its contract in July to design and build the hospital. 

In the meantime, it will work with the hospital’s project team to assess the shortlisted sites for the new hospital to determine which would be most suitable for the building. It will then help design the new hospital and complete and submit the full planning application by autumn 2021.

The initial contract, which is worth approximately £30m, will see ROK FCC take the project through the full planning process.

The extensive procurement process, driven by project management office Mace, began last year and involved health officials and members of the hospital project team visiting examples of FCC’s work across the UK and Europe, including three hospitals in Madrid – the South East Hospital, the Hospital Torrejón de Ardoz, and the Maternity and paediatric Hospital of O´Donnell.

Following the outbreak of Covid-19, the tender submissions were revisited to stress-test the bidding organisations’ financial resilience and supply chains as part of an extensive (and external) due diligence exercise. That exercise also enabled the Jersey Government to gain further reassurance regarding historical corruption allegations that a subsidiary of FCC faces in Panama, and which were uncovered and reported to the authorities by the restructured FCC board following the company’s own internal investigation. Further external scrutiny has satisfied the Government that the matter does not pose a risk to the project. 

Clinical director for the project Ashok Handa, who is an associate professor of surgery at Oxford University and a consultant vascular surgeon, said: “We have said from the outset that this project must be clinically led and, in order to maintain that commitment, myself and other health colleagues visited three hospitals in Madrid that were built by FCC and were extremely impressed with what we saw. Their modern and flexible designs precisely fit with the sort of hospital our clinicians want to see built in Jersey.”

Commenting on the appointment of a preferred design and delivery partner, Deputy Chief Minister Senator Lyndon Farnham, chairman of the Our Hospital Political Oversight Group, said: “We cast the net far and wide during the pre-market reach-out and are absolutely delighted to appoint ROK FCC as design and delivery partner for our island’s biggest capital project.

“To have a local partner of such quality team up with a global developer of such calibre and experience reinforces our commitment to deliver the best possible hospital for Jersey and demonstrates the confidence that the industry has in Jersey to get the job done.

“This partnership means our local workforce can draw on the expertise and experience of FCC, which has an excellent track record in delivering hospitals and other functional public buildings, and ensures that our island economy gets the boost it needs as it emerges from COVID-19.”

He added the work would now proceed with the joint venture company to find the best possible site.

Chief Minister John Le Fondré remarked: “My challenge to the team was for us to be contractually committed to a new hospital before the 2022 elections. That means having a development partner, a site, planning permission, and financing agreed. This is therefore a crucial milestone in the project and I’m extremely impressed with the level of detail and professionalism that has gone into this procurement process. The members of the Political Oversight Group have done a tremendous job of keeping this project on course to deliver for our island the new hospital it needs by 2026.”

A spokesperson for the consortium said: “ROK FCC Joint Venture is extremely excited to have been appointed as the design and delivery partner for ‘Our Hospital Project’, and would like to thank the Our Hospital team for their diligent and committed approach throughout the procurement process.”

FCC’s Steve Rickwood added: “Hard work and determined teams have come together in true partnership to push this project to where it is today, and [we’re] delighted to connect those vastly experienced teams together to design and construct the Our Hospital Project.”