Finsbury Health Centre Community Trust spearheads cash hunt to save centre

Published: 17th December, 2010
by TOM FOOT

THE campaign to save historic Finsbury Health Centre has been boosted by the launch of a charity to help raise funds for its restoration.

The Finsbury Health Centre Community Trust held its inaugural meeting on Monday at Arts Etc, in Rosebery Avenue, Clerkenwell.

Its creation follows a three-year campaign to stop owner NHS Islington selling the Pine Street centre to developers. Barb Jacobson, chairwoman of the Save Finsbury Health Centre campaign, said: “We have signed a constitution. We’re building momentum.”

The launch of the trust meant there was now a body that could work with the council, she added. Talks with the Heritage Lottery Fund, a possible source of funding, were going “really well”.

NHS Islington scrapped its closure plan in June but has refused to fund any major refurbishment, claiming it does not have the time or resources.

The primary care trust is to sell its Pine Street Centre, next door to the health centre, to the Association for Research into Stammering in Childhood. The association runs the Michael Palin Centre for Stammering Children from the second floor of the health centre.

It will refurbish Pine Street Centre with a £500,000 government grant. 

Ms Jacobson said there was a “key contradiction” in NHS Islington facilitating that refurbishment but saying it was too busy to work on the health centre.

NHS Islington is planning to consult about moving orthotics and biomechanics departments out of the health centre to Hornsey Road, Holloway.

The primary care trust is being amalgamated into a wider health authority – spanning Camden, Haringey, Enfield, Islington and Barnet – called North Central London sector.

Campaigners are questioning why a large percentage of board members of NHS Islington – including chairwoman Paula Khan and former chief executive Rachel Tyndall – have secured top positions at NCL.

For more about the campaign, see www.savefhc.org.uk