For sale: prime piece of NHS real estate
St Luke’s Hospital site deemed no longer viable carved up for disposal by hard-up mental health trust
Published: 26th May, 2011
by TOM FOOT
A SPRAWLING estate acquired for the care of mental health patients when the NHS was formed is to be sold.
The Muswell Hill site of St Luke’s and Woodside Hospital, used by Camden patients, is to be carved up for “disposal” by cash-strapped Camden and Islington Foundation Trust.
Proposals unveiled this week reveal that four of St Luke’s 17 buildings will stay open – for now – but about 80 per cent of the huge publicly-owned site will be put on the private market.
Trust chief executive Wendy Wallace said yesterday (Wednesday): “We plan to sell the site, and use the funds to offer much better facilities to the people in our care.”
The trust argues that it is not legally obliged to consult on the decision because the buildings are either empty or used for administration. Instead, a “public discussion” is planned, with a meeting at the hospital, although internal documents suggest there is unlikely to be any other course of action beyond selling it off.
According to trust documents seen by the New Journal: “Money is being swallowed up in site maintenance and there is no advantage in holding onto this site as there is no scenario we can foresee where St Luke’s would be viable.”
The cost of building new wards fit for the 21st century is estimated to be £25million. The sale will save the trust £1million a year in maintenance costs.
The trust is trying to save £26.5million over three years because of a squeeze on NHS funding.
Mental health campaigner Scott Stevens said: “They are circumventing all the rules by effectively saying we don’t need a consultation because there are no services there. Surely an estate like this should be kept in public ownership?”
In 2002, serial killer Anthony Hardy was released from St Luke’s shortly before murdering two women in Camden Town. Until 2008, the hospital provided acute beds for mental health patients in Camden and Islington. Beds have been systematically shut down over the last year under a plan to close two of the trust’s four hospitals and push more patients “into the community”.
NHS staff live on the St Luke’s site and the trust is looking for alternative accommodation, according to board papers.
The documents say: “Subject to no interest being registered from other health trusts, disposal of the site will be managed through a fair and appropriate commercial marketing procedure to provide the best value for the public purse.”
The “public discussion” ends on June 20. Alternative uses will be discussed at a public meeting at St Luke’s on June 7.
No sight of Old Master – St Luke’s Gainsborough asset still in storage
A SELF portrait by a world famous Old Master discovered at St Luke’s Hospital seven years ago is in storage and in need of repair.
The Camden and Islington Foundation Trust is deciding what to do with the Gainsborough, recognised as a potentially valuable asset after announcing a sale of the hospital site in Muswell Hill.
The painting – believed to be left to the NHS hospital in the will of a wealthy former patient – was thought to have been sent to the National Portrait Gallery to be restored after it was found in poor condition in 2004.
At the time, a trust spokesman said they would decide to “sell it or display it” – but neither has happened and this week a C&I spokesman said: “The Gainsborough is in storage, and needs repair.”
St Luke’s was part of the former Middlesex Hospital, which had in its lobby four large paintings by Frederick Cayley Robinson. Thought to be relatively unimportant at the time, the “Acts of Mercy” murals were later recognised as works of genius and were hung in the National Gallery in 2010 after being bought by the Wellcome Collection.
The 18th-century portrait and landscape painter Sir Thomas Gainsborough was the dominant British artist of his period. His works can sell for millions of pounds.
Camden & Islington Foundation Trust is selling St Luke’s in a bid to save £1million running costs each year. It announced the closure of two hospitals and the closure of 95 beds last week.