CNJ COMMENT: Patients in the crossfire of health centre deal that died

Published: 22 September, 2011

WHO is to blame for the failure to open a health centre in the heart of the King's Cross Railway Lands
It was a gilt-edged opportunity – and it has been missed.

This was an agreed legacy of the £2billion Argent development.

Within a short time, tens of thousands of people will be working or living there.

A walk-in centre or clinic is a necessity for such a development.

One year after the deal was agreed, the Primary Care Trust now say there is no longer a need for it.

Naturally, councillors – and certainly Councillor Paul Braithwaite – are rightly apoplectic.

They complain of misinformation and that they have been repeatedly misled about the negotiations for months.

Though the PCT was publicly saying that the deal was going ahead, they took so long to finalise it that the developers killed it off.

NHS reforms, proposed by the government, but yet to go through House of the Commons, have already begun to take effect.

The proposed abolition of PCTs has seen around one third of NHS Camden’s staff axed or relocated as the organisation was dismantled.

In our opinion this was probably a contributory factor in the bungle over the clinic.

The so-called bonfire of managers was a proud boast of the Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley.

We will cut red tape and bring an end to waste, he maintained. But in the crossfire an important opportunity has been lost and patients will suffer.

Will Camden’s Consortium of GPs – which will in the future be responsible for these decisions – be half as well equipped as the managers that preceded them?

HS2: it’s all about who you know

It is claimed that it will be possible to run up to 18 trains per hour from Euston on a single two-way high speed line.

Campaigners rightly ask whether this is possible.

Where are costings?

Admissions by the Transport Minister Norman Baker that Camden could be hit because its campaigners are “not as well connected” will heap further concerns on those who oppose the scheme.

The Conservative Transport Secretary is certainly keen to proceed with HS2, lest the country is left behind world leaders like China or the US.  At least 400 homes are threatened with demolition in a project that will transform Camden forever.

But then it’s all about who you know, not what you know.