 |
 |
Lib Dems demand re-think on health centre sell-off
February 13, 2009 4:57 PM
Lib Dems want FInsbury's health services to stay local
Local Liberal Democrat councillors have demanded that the Labour Health Minister step in and review NHS Islington´s decision to sell-off the trailblazer Finsbury Health Centre and spread the services it provides across the borough.
NHS Islington recently agreed out-of-the-blue to close the pioneering health centre claiming it is too expensive to maintain the listed building. The GP services will move next door, but the other services will be taken away from the Finsbury community.
Councillors from all parties will agree at the Health and Wellbeing Committee meeting this week to take the issue to the Minister and demand an urgent review of the PCT´s decision as well as a halt to the shift in services from the local Finsbury area.
Local Liberal Democrat councillor Donna Boffa said:
"Islington NHS should not take services out of Finsbury. The services it provides are vital to local residents and the building is a local landmark. Finsbury shouldn't lose out.
"Most people round here don't have a car so scattering the current services around the four corners of the borough as the PCT is planning will make it more difficult for residents."
Marisha Ray, one of the local Lib Dem councillors for Finsbury Health Centre, and Vice Chair of the Council's Health & Wellbeing Committee, comments:
"I used Finsbury Health Centre when my son was born. It's an icon. That's why Liberal Democrats want the Government to stop the sell-off and keep all the services in Finsbury.
"It is cruel irony just as the Labour government is pushing polyclinics as the way forward for the health service in London, that Finsbury Health Centre, which was a polyclinic from the day it opened its doors in 1938 is being forced to close down.
"The PCT will not make as much money as they could have done from the sale of the centre now we are in recession, so this makes it an ideal time to review the sell-off."
Lib Dem Parliamentary Candidate for Islington South & Finsbury, Bridget Fox, added:
"Local people have reacted with horror to the threatened closure of Finsbury Health Centre.
"Labour are disrupting popular, well-established GPs to force through polyclinics. The PFI finance rules - Gordon Brown's baby - apparently make it uneconomic for NHS Islington to refurbish Finsbury Health Centre.
"And instead of local democratic control of health services, we have appointed Primary Care Trust boards, who are accountable only to Whitehall.
"Instead of threatening Finsbury Health Centre, Labour Ministers must change their mind and save it.
"I support the local councillors' demands that Finsbury's health services must stay local."
Related Links
What would you like to do next?
-
Subscribe for updates
Follow the party's activity on...
- Twitter:
- Liberal Democrats
- Facebook:
- Liberal Democrats
- YouTube:
- Liberal Democrats