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COURT BID TO HALT HEALTH CENTRE SALE
Campaigners plan legal challenge to save pioneering building
CAMPAIGNERS determined to prevent the sale of Grade I-listed Finsbury Health Centre to a private developer are preparing to take their battle to the High Court.
A major protest is to be staged outside the Department of Health headquarters in Whitehall at 11am on Wednesday. A 1,800-signature petition calling for money to be found to save the Pine Street centre will be delivered to Health Secretary Alan Johnson.
Islington health chiefs want to quit the historic health centre, which has served Finsbury patients for 70 years, and scatter its services across the borough.
A final decision, based on the results of a public consultation that has drawn more than 3,000 responses, will be taken at a Primary Care Trust board meeting at its headquarters in Goswell Road on January 29.
Campaigner Barb Jacobson said: “We have been advised that, if at the end of this month the board decides to accept the proposals to abandon Finsbury Health Centre and relocate its services, there are solid grounds for a judicial review.”
The pioneering health centre, set up to tackle chronic deprivation, opened in 1938. For the first time, doctors worked alongside health professionals in a publicly owned centre. Its Russian architect, Berthold Lubetkin, said: “Nothing is too good for ordinary people”.
According to a thick file of emails released under Freedom of Information rules to the Tribune over Christmas, Islington PCT – which has changed its name to NHS Islington – was actively considering saving the building until July last year when it learned the renovation bill could exceed £4million.
The internal emails reveal how attempts to raise the cash from English Heritage were abandoned because funding has been diverted to the London Olympics.
Without heritage funding, NHS Islington would have to enter into a Private Finance Initiative (PFI) deal to pay for refurbishment. Under a proposed scheme, the building would be remortgaged over 20 years to a company called Camden and Islington Community Solutions (CICS), part-owned by Barclays Bank.
CICS this week increased its estimate of the cost of refurbishment to £9.5million – more than double the figure health chiefs were officially quoting throughout 2008. The new figure has been dismissed by expert architect John Allan, Lubetkin’s biographer and friend, who worked on the health centre in the 1990s.
Rachel Tyndall, chief executive of NHS Islington, said: “After thorough consideration of these options we came to the conclusion that continuing to provide services at Finsbury is no longer a viable or suitable option.
“Our job is to provide quality healthcare services that are accessible to all residents.”
To sign the patients’ petition, visit www.gopetition.co.uk/ petitions/stop-the-sell-off-of-the-finsbury-health-centre.html or to offer support call 020 7833 1395. |
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