ISLINGTON
INDEPENDENT WORKING CLASS ASSOCIATION
Finsbury Health Centre sell-off slammed by IWCA
26th July 2008
The Independent Working Class Association (IWCA) has uncovered plans by Islington's Primary Care Trust, to sell the Finsbury Health Centre. Former Lib Dem leader Steve Hitchins sits on the board. This a further attack on the very people the centre was designed to service.
When it was built in 1938 its architect, Bertold Lubetkin famously proclaimed that ‘nothing is too good for ordinary people'. The purpose of the Finsbury Health Centre was to deal with cases of diphtheria, rickets, whooping cough and tuberculosis which were rife amongst the working class community in the area. Life expectancy was a mere 59 years for men at the time, and was much lower than in many other boroughs.
Life expectancy in an area like Bunhill is still one of the lowest in London, only fractionally better the Gaza Strip.
IWCA representative for Clerkenwell Sharon Hayward said: ‘While the opening of the building was symbolic of the political radicalism of the authorities in Finsbury at that time, preceding the commencement of the National Health Service by 10 years, the planned sell off is equally symbolic of the authorities determination to now privatise or sell everything and anything that services the needs of Finsbury's working class community.
Apparently Islington's Primary Care Trust appears to have no shame in celebrating the 60th anniversary of the NHS by selling the building to the highest bidder.
The sell off has all the hall marks of the previous and equally contentious sell off of the Finsbury's Town Hall - no public debate and in all likelihood deals being done behind closed doors come as no surprise given that the ex Lib Dem leader Steve Hitchins is a member of the Primary Care Trust's board. That said, the Lib Dems will be bracing themselves for a public backlash from the electorate."
31 July 2008 13:07