Outrage over plan to move Golders Green surgery

GOLDERS GREEN Jewish residents have expressed anger and concern over the planned relocation of the local Ravenscroft Medical Centre, which has served the community for more than 70 years, to Finchley Memorial Hospital.

Many have complained that the proposed move would be “disastrous”, and that the three mile journey to the North Finchley site would be “physically impossible”. Ravenscroft serves around 7.000 people, a few thousand of them Jews.

In a letter from Dr Barry Subel, principal partner at the surgery, patients were told that 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.”

One Jewish Ravenscroft patient told the JC: “It will be disastrous for the majority of patients if this facility would close. They are calling it a transfer but for most it means closing as Finchley is too far off.”

Another said: “It will be impossible for me to get there as I am a pensioner with a disability and do not drive. My records may go to FMH but I can’t. So it is a closure in my eyes.”

A third argued that the new location “will be physically impossible to reach for their many disabled and infirm elderly patients, and also for the many [religious Jewish] mothers with large families.”

“Extreme concern” about the planned move has been expressed in a letter by residents of Jewish Care’s Selig Court, who describe themselves as a group of “vulnerable and frail survivors of the Holocaust and Nazi persecution, most of whom are aged in their late 80s and 90s.”

Four local Jewish Tory councillors — Peter Zinkin, Shimon Ryde, Dean Cohen and Melvin Cohen — as well as Finchley and Golders Green Tory MP Mike Freer, have also registered their deep unease about the relocation proposal.

“We are not only concerned about the impact of the move on patients of this practice but also the potentially detrimental impact of the move on all the other local practices,” the five representatives wrote in a joint letter to residents.

They made it clear that “the decision is not one we have any direct influence over, being the responsibility of the NHS and particularly the local CCG [Clinical Commissioning Group, of which Dr Subel is vice-chair].

“A number of us have already met with the CCG to forcibly express these concerns.”

In another letter from Mr Freer, the MP said he had “stressed” to the CCG that travelling from Golders Green to the Finchley site was not easy by public transport, especially for older residents, or those with young children and pushchairs. Moreover, observant Jewish patients would find the journey “problematic as the Sabbath approached”.

In an email, Dr Brian Golden, a former partner at Ravenscroft, wrote that the plan to move the surgery “certainly does not support the ‘care closer to home’ [NHS] strategy.

“I have spoken to all the practices in NW11, and most in the neighbourhood of FMH, and all are strongly opposed. The feeling is that it will destabilise general practice in both areas.

“In addition, there is concern that Jewish patients need a practice within walking distance because of access problems on festivals and the Sabbath.”

Councillor Zinkin told the JC that “almost all the residents who have contacted me about this have been Jewish. The demographic of the area is about 50 per cent Jewish.”

There was a common thread among patient opinions: “How on earth are elderly people, or mothers with young children, supposed to get to Finchley Memorial? It’s a joke.

“They don’t seem to have thought through at all the impact of this move. And that’s outrageous.”

It will be disastrous for the majority of patients’ They don’t seem to have thought it through’

The notes for the proposed relocation sent out by Ravenscroft acknowledge that “some patients will have further to travel and that might be a challenge for them.

“However, there are real benefits in having a modern, purpose-built healthcare facility.”

It also suggests two bus routes to the hospital, as well as a number of cycle routes.

Surgery members are being urged by local representatives to make their feelings known via a survey currently being offered as part of a consultation process.