History rewritten over hospital (From Haringey Independent)

History rewritten over hospital

9:26am Wednesday 15th April 2009

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May I correct the Haringey Primary Care Trust's rewrite of local history that the much-loved Hornsey Central Hospital closed in 2000, because it was "underused and crumbling".

I happened to visit one of the wards in the hospital just before it was closed and it was beautiful.

It was clean, the patients were happy, the ward was full and I still recall a sense of disbelief that it was even being considered for closure. In 1998, when the health authorities first tried unsuccessfully to close it, the then health spokeswoman was quoted as saying: “We listened and learned that the hospital was loved and extremely popular, and an essential requirement in the area".

They didn’t listen for long. However it would truer to say that the hospital, our last in Haringey, was left to crumble by the Haringey Primary Care Trust. It cost the taxpayer a fortune over the years in security fees, as it lay idle, leaving our community with no services on the site for nearly a decade.

But what is just as scandalous is that when they did manage to close our cottage hospital in 2000 it was with a promise that it would be used to care for the elderly. They silenced much of the opposition by saying that there would be sheltered housing, and then that 64 rehabilitation and respite beds would be provided.

The sad tale of Hornsey Central Hospital is a cautionary one, and shows that people should never believe what they are told. We were never told it was going to be a glorified GP centre with add-ons until recently and certainly not at the time we were "consulted" on its closure. We were not told that it would require the closure of Middle Lane Health Centre or sale of Fortis Green clinic.

And I for one, am still suspicious. Yes there is a Dementia Day Centre, but only because a local charity has donated £0.75m to secure part of the ground floor, ( it will still depend upon Haringey Council funding its day-to day running costs.) The rest of the ground floor is contracted to house a huge pharmacy - which will presumably be successful at the expense of our smaller local ones.

I am still suspicious because Haringey Primary Care Trust admitted at its last public meeting that they are contracted to fund the mortgage and maintenance of this new building at £800,000 every year for the next 30 YEARS (with no doubt something in the small print to say this can rise with inflation!) With a debt this huge, how will they afford to stuff it full of hospital services? A recession and a shortfall of £37m still lost in Iceland means that Haringey Council is unlikely to bail them out.

My prediction is that there will be few more real services in this vast building than we already had. Remember Hornsey Central Hospital already had a thriving outpatients department - with physiotherapy, X-rays, out-of-hours GP service on site. We have lost the operating theatre and the beds.

We are told that the community can decide what goes into this building – but most of the critical decisions have been taken.

For a while people will be excited by this shiny new building, although no one could say it looks beautiful.

But I think the sadness for me is that it is a lost opportunity and a betrayal of promises particularly to local patients who need overnight care. It is sentimental to believe that people can always cope, or that you can rely on agency carers. Short term beds would have been for perfect for our community, but the primary care trust have squandered this chance by turning our much loved and thriving cottage hospital into a glorified GP centre.

Sue Hessel Haringey Federation of Residents' Associations

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