Stop the Sell-Off of Lubetkin's Finsbury Health Centre

Islington PCT is proposing to sell the Finsbury Health Centre (FHC) designed by Berthold Lubetkin to private developers. Next door, they want to build a GP surgery with no specialist services despite current government policy encouraging multi-service clinics.

The specialist services currently at FHC are used by people from a wide area. They are also extremely important for local residents as Clerkenwell and South Islington have a high population of both elderly people and young families who especially need locally accessible services. In addition, moving the services out of the area and building another GP surgery will be costly, but the PCT has yet to prove that the profits from selling the FHC will counter-balance those costs.

From before the inception of the NHS, the Finsbury Health Centre (FHC) has been not only an architectural icon but a standard-bearer for the delivery of public health care. Because its once forward-looking facilities are now out of date, the FHC deserves a refurbishment to bring it in line with modern standards. After an exhaustive report into the decision to close Finsbury Health Centre, Islington Council found that it would be far more cost-effective to keep it open and recommended that it be refurbished and retained to provide NHS community services.

The PCT is disregarding both its own expensive consultations over the past six years and the health of our community by proposing this sale. It should be stopped.