Opposition Leader Wayne Furbert yesterday urged opponents of the proposal to build the new hospital in the Botanical Gardens to speak with ?a clear voice? in the wake of Government?s announcement that the decision was not set in stone.

And Shadow Health Minister Louise Jackson said research conducted by the United Bermuda Party showed there was no reason why the hospital could not be rebuilt on its current site, while the Bermuda National Trust said the decision could breach the Environmental Charter signed by Bermuda and the UK.

Premier Alex Scott said on Tuesday that the controversial decision to build on the Gardens was not final and could be reversed if there was overwhelming public opposition.

On Tuesday he revealed there would be full disclosure to the public of all the facts and figures relating to the rebuilding plans to show why the Botanical Gardens option was favoured by the Bermuda Hospitals Board over an alternative idea to rebuild on the current hospital site.

Once the information is shared, the Premier said he believed opponents of the Botanical Gardens scheme would come around to the view that it was preferable to paying the estimated $100 million extra to rebuild on the current site and having to endure a longer building time along with keeping the hospital running while construction is taking place.

Mr. Furbert yesterday called on the public to challenge the Government on a number of issues including what he said was ?the strange lack of information on the land in the northwest quadrant of the hospital property bounded by Berry Hill Road and Point Finger Road and the existing hospital?.

?There is more than enough land in this area to build a new hospital surrounded by a green belt.?he said.

?Government should be challenged to explain why this area is unsuitable for a new hospital.?

He added: ?The people do not want the hospital built there, but they will need to speak with a clear voice to help Government ?get over it?.?

Mrs. Jackson said the UBP had consulted with medical professionals in Bermuda and overseas and believed the issue of patients being adversely affected by construction work while a hospital was reconstructed was not insurmountable as it had been proven workable again and again in overseas projects.

Mrs. Jackson said the decision to build on the Botanical Gardens left a lot be desired ?when you consider we are giving up the green lung of Bermuda instead of doing something that people around the world are doing successfully, and that is reconstructing on the site of hospitals?.

She said The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto and the Children?s Hospital of Philadelphia both had reconstruction work undertaken on site while fully functioning with patients.

?Both of these facilities, and they are two of many, remained full of patients during construction.

?They worked within the buildings, reconstructing from the inside,? said Mrs. Jackson.

She quoted Anne Marie Christian, now a vice-president at the Toronto hospital, who said of the 1993 hospital wing reconstruction: ?Our hospital remained full during construction and when we joined the buildings. The biggest issue we faced was noise and vibration disruption, but we did those invasive connections during off-hours.

?There are standard operating procedures for how we deal with the issues so that you don?t disrupt patients. We had procedures in place as well as fall-back procedures. Work gets done in premium time through good planning.?

And Mrs. Jackson watched Bermuda?s old hospital being replaced by the new KEMH in the early 1960s when it was built adjoining the old building and said: ?It did not affect us in any way. There was no disruption.

The former hospital building now houses a variety of Government offices.

Resident Mary Sumpter asked: ?Why are they not considering what several people have suggested, that they tear down the really old hospital buildings that were in use before the present hospital was built and that now house various Government offices and build on that site??

Mrs. Jackson said fears that patients will be exposed to danger as a result of an on-site reconstruction, or that it will take two years longer to build on the current site as opposed to the Botanical Gardens, was scare-mongering.

The Bermuda National Trust is awaiting a reply to its letter of September 6 to the Premier in which its president William Holmes asked Government ?to hold the decision on relocating the hospital to the Botanical Gardens until it has shown openly and transparently that the existing site ? including the extended land area to Point Finger Road ? has been proved to be impossible?.

The Trust said such a project should have had a three-stage consultation process with reporting back to the public and it has asked for proof that the Environmental Charter signed between Government and the UK Government has not been ignored. The Charter requires that environmental impact assessments be prepared before the approval of major projects.

And the Trust has asked: ?In the absence of detailed cost estimates of the three named sites, how can the public be sure the $100 million to build on the existing site is a realistic cost and how do we know if this is too high a price to pay?

?And how can Bermuda be assured the existing site will be returned to open space if it is to remain in the custody of the BHB and zoned institutional and not classed as a National Park??

The Trust was still awaiting a reply to its letter this week. In the meantime it has put its concerns about the hospital plan on its website.