A decision has been made to transfer a local medical centre which has served the Jewish community for more than 70 years to a new location outside its catchment area, with local residents describing the move as a “terrible blow”.
In a meeting of Barnet’s CCG [Clinical Commissioning Group] on Thursday, it was agreed to move the Ravenscroft Medical Centre from Golders Green road to Finchley Memorial Hospital, 3.2 miles away.
The surgery serves approximately 7,500 patients, a few thousand of whom are Jewish.
One Jewish member of the surgery who was present at Thursday’s meeting described it as a “scandal. Of the 25 or so people sitting around the table at last Thursday's meeting - only three of them had a vote - and that was from the beginning a foregone conclusion. All the consultations and discussions were merely paying lip-service to the citizens of Barnet.
“My overwhelming belief is that we have been betrayed and let down by the surgery and Barnet CCG. The only possible explanation is financial. There are certainly no benefits to any of the patients - despite claims to the contrary by those holding the purse strings.”
In a letter to surgery patients in February from Dr Barry Subel, principal partner at the surgery, patients were told its GPs “feel that relocating to Finchley Memorial Hospital will offer the opportunity to see and treat you within a modern, purpose-built healthcare facility.
“We believe that this will bring other benefits to you as a patient, such as the co-location of community services like blood tests and x-rays.”
But the Jewish surgery member pointed out that Dr Subel is himself Vice Chair of the local CCG.
“Public access to Finchley Memorial Hospital is, as the CCG admitted at that fateful meeting last Thursday, 'a problem'”, he said.
“There is no direct public transport to the hospital, and the nearest bus stop leaves a 15 minute walk, which for young mothers with children, the elderly and disabled and otherwise disadvantaged patients, may well prove impossible - especially in inclement weather. The whole journey can easily take upwards of 40 minutes one way.
“If you think for example of the elderly residents of Selig Court - many of whom are holocaust survivors - who need the services of a carer, such a journey would be a nightmare - and cost a fortune in paying extra carer's costs for the journey to and from the hospital.”
Dr Brian Golden, a former senior partner at the surgery, described this as “an example of the CCG behaving badly, and forgetting that they should be putting the interests of patients first.”
