Public+Services+-+Vulnerable+groups+-+Pitfalls+of+polyclinics+(11.07)

This article first appeared in The Hornsey magazine:

Having faithfully served our community for the last 90 years, Hornsey Central Hospital was last seen alive and still working well in 2000. Paid for by previous generations, including many soldiers and their families from the first world war, its foundation stone read 'To the glory of God for the healing of the poor'.
 * WANTED: HORNSEY CENTRAL HOSPITAL**.

But seven years ago it was taken from us and left to crumble. No services have since been provided from this site. It was the last hospital in Haringey. In 1998, following public outcry, it was announced that Hornsey Central Hospital would be retained. By 2000 we were told it would be replaced with sheltered housing and 64 respite and continuing care beds. In 2004 we were told it would be a 'community hospital'. By 2006 that we would be getting £7m. from central government towards it -we got only a fraction. And this summer they quietly told us it would become a "Polyclinic" with no beds for patients who require overnight treatment or care. And now, even more quietly, we hear that local GP surgeries will have to close because they want 50,000 patients and their GPs to operate from here instead. All of this has occurred against a shameful lack of public debate. Just as we were not consulted when they sold off Fortis Green Clinic, closed earlier this year. Or Hornsey Hospital Nurses Home, recently sold for flats. The "polyclinic" is essentially a commercial enterprise in which the Haringey Primary Care Trust (PCT) have contracted taxpayers to a property developer, who has now bulldozed the hospital and will build a new structure on the hospital site. Did you know that over £1 million annual rent will have to be collected by the public authorities for this - even before payment is made for the services that go in there? Until 2039! Future generations will have their hands very tied, and it seems almost inevitable that only lucrative self financing medical (or non-medical) activities will be able to afford to run from there.

The PCT have admitted they don't know themselves what services will be in the proposed new building - they can only outline possibilities because it all depends upon who will be prepared to rent the "flexible use" space. All we know so far is that the ground floor is contracted to become a super sized pharmacy with a proposal for rental of retail and café space – which could put our existing local pharmacies out of business. A local charity has donated £0.75 m. to ensure that a dementia day centre will also go on the ground floor, with an assumption that the local authority will be able to rent and staff it. Time will tell.

A GP polyclinic is likely to be a relocation of GP services, not an expansion. If GPs are put in the polyclinic they will have to be housed upstairs - difficult for patients with infants and the disabled. It could be very unpopular as local GP surgeries are well liked as they are, and already offer a plethora of services. Patients will have to travel further to a less personal and more centralised setting. All patients will lose out because choice will be so reduced. The natural competition that arises between different surgeries will be gone.

It is difficult to imagine how there will be room left for any other services. Reports suggest that diagnostic provision will simply be privately supplied on a part-time portable basis. Will operations be performed by GPs? Surely most patients would prefer specialists to perform operations. Will an anaesthetist be on hand? Will there be a X-Ray room, lead-lined and fully staffed? Where are the promised respite and continuing care beds? Where is the promised sheltered housing? Where is the vital support for families when their loved ones are too sick to be at home?

The proposed facility at Hornsey will be the only NHS polyclinic in the whole of West Haringey. There are now no NHS general hospitals left in Haringey. The 1980s saw the closure of both the Wood Green and Southgate Hospital and the Prince of Wales Hospital, Tottenham. Coppetts Wood Hospital, Muswell Hill, has also been sold. In future, provision at St. Ann's is to be reduced and there are national proposals to cut the number of beds and hospitals. Those without private medical care could be left with very little. Is this what the founding fathers of Hornsey Central intended when they bequeathed us our hospital? Sue Hessel Haringey Federation of Residents’ Groups (Officer for Vulnerable Groups) 7.11.07