KEEP FINSBURY HEALTH CENTRE SAYS MINISTER - Lib Dems' Paul Burstow offers hope to campaigners battling closure

Published: 25 June 2010
by TOM FOOT

THE row over the future of Finsbury Health Centre reached the House of Commons on Wednesday with a health minister offering “hope” that the iconic building could be saved from developers.

The adjournment debate – secured by Labour MP Emily Thornberry – was the first time the fate of the grade I-listed building has been discussed in Parliament.

Lib Dem health minister Paul Burstow told the Commons that the Islington South MP had made it clear “what a huge beacon of hope a building of that sort would have been in the 1930s”. 

He added: “I understand the strong feelings she has expressed and the powerful case she makes.” 

Mr Burstow shared Ms Thornberry’s view of the significance of the building, “which clearly goes beyond the boundaries of the London borough of Islington”. He said: “This was a building ahead of its time. It was indeed a visionary endeavour.

“I hope we can find a way to preserve it as a living, breathing building and a testament to its history.”

Mr Burstow explained that changes to the decision-making process meant NHS Islington, which wants to shut the centre, would have to pass a series of “crucial tests” – including securing the consent of patients, clinicians and Islington Council – before any closure decision could be approved. This change of procedure offered Ms Thornberry “some hope”, he added.

NHS Islington claims the building is too expensive to refurbish. Since its plans emerged in 2007, they have been fiercely contested by clinicians and patients’ groups and opposed three times in Town Hall resolutions.

A detailed 90-page report from the council’s health and wellbeing committee has challenged NHS Islington’s costings.

Report author Labour councillor Martin Klute, now the council’s executive member for health, was praised by Mr Burstow for playing an “important role” in challenging the plans.

In a personal aside, the minister told the Commons he was a fan of the health centre’s visionary architect Berthold Lubetkin, in particular his famous penguin pool design at London Zoo, where he likes to take his children some weekends.

Mr Burstow revealed NHS Islington had already begun a review of its plans and urged Ms Thornberry to challenge it, adding that it was now “vital” for the primary care trust and the council to come to some agreement. 

The building in Pine Street opened in 1938 as the first publicly funded health centre in the country, providing a range of treatments free at the point of use for the first time. It was a model that influenced Labour politician Nye Bevan when founding the National Health Service in 1948.

In the Commons debate Ms Thornberry, speaking in an empty chamber, warned that closure would be a “step in the wrong direction” and reminded the minister that the campaign had secured international support from architects.

She said of the health centre: “It was designed to contrast with the gloom of the surrounding slums, and the glass walls sparkled in the sun. In a phrase that we might not hear modern men use when describing a building, Lubetkin said that it was to be ‘as beautiful as the hair of a beautiful young girl in the summer sunshine’.”

After the debate, health centre campaign group chairman Barb Jacobson said: “The PCT have been told they must take on board the evidence gathered by the health and wellbeing committee. They have to answer it. It can’t just be a case of them saying one thing and the council saying another. 

“The costings the PCT came up with were all based on work done by non-specialists. If there is going to be a local agreement, the PCT has to admit its costings were based on a financial model that doesn’t work.”

She added: “It was a very good speech by Emily. But it was a shame there were so few people to hear it.”

NHS Islington will reconsider the health and wellbeing committee’s recommendations at a board meeting on July 22.