Local Lib Dem councillor Lynne Featherstone has stepped up the campaign for the introduction of a “healthy living centre” on the site of the former Hornsey Central Hospital by making a fact-finding visit to a similar service in Bromley by Bow in East London.

Lynne Featherstone believes this is just the sort of community facility Haringey Council, the Health Authority and the Primary Health Care Trust should have been aiming to put onto the Hornsey Hospital site.

The centre not only has a doctors’ practice, but also seeks to address housing, employment, benefits and emotional well-being – providing a significant community facility and nipping local health problems in the bud before they start.

Alongside the conventional health practice are all sorts of activities, from art to gardening, as well as employment and educational courses. There are also people there to help locals through the minefield of the benefits system. Many people who visit the centre go there for one thing or another and become volunteers. Everyone is encouraged to contribute for themselves in whatever way they can.

Lynne Featherstone says that a similar healthy living centre was meant to be part of the resurrection of the Hornsey Hospital site. However, Richard Sumray, the Chair of Haringey Primary Care Trust, never planned an actual building for the Healthy Living Centre – arguing that it could be a network of services and people without a building. Even this possibility now stands dismissed from future plans.

Commenting, Lynne Featherstone said:

“Bromley by Bow has created a truly ground-breaking centre, which sees 2,000 people visits per week, with a staff of 105. It has therefore become a significant local employer in its own right.

“Having now visited this facility, it is clear that a real Healthy Living Centre needs a building and truly has the potential to benefit the local community. I am writing to Richard Sumray to once again push for decent local health services to be re-instated on the Hornsey Hospital site.”