At this week’s Haringey Council meeting Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader Cllr Wayne Hoban proposed a motion calling on Haringey Council and Haringey’s MPs to lobby the Labour Government to address the serious NHS funding crisis which is jeopardising the delivery of community health projects in Haringey.

The motion, seconded by Lib Dem Cllr Martin Newton, was amended by Labour to downplay the problem.

Cllr Hoban’s speech highlighted that the serious NHS funding crisis, with trusts throughout England heading for a combined deficit of £1 billion, had put at risk many community health projects in Haringey as local trusts struggled to bring their huge overspends under control.

Cllr Hoban stated:

“There is a £1.76 billion funding gap between what local authorities have to spend in the financial year and what it will cost them to deliver community health services. The Labour-appointed Haringey Primary Care Trust’s recent decision to go back to the drawing board yet again regarding their plan to redevelop the Hornsey Central Hospital site in Hornsey & Wood Green is nothing short of a scandal.

“The hospital was shut down in 2000 against the wishes of local residents with a promise that it would be retained and redeveloped for community health use.

“It is nothing short of a scandal that this Labour Government, despite huge increased NHS investment through back-door tax increases, is overseeing the collapse of many essential community health developments such as the Hornsey Central Hospital project. The NHS financial crisis combined with a lack of government investment in social care has produced huge problems in Haringey. The number of people in need of care is increasing by the day and a fair, sustainable system of funding must be introduced at the earliest opportunity.”