Agenda item

The Chairman invited to the table:

·         Mr Garett Turbett – Programme Manager, Barnet Clinical Commissioning Group.

Mr Turbett confirmed that all of the services, temporarily located elsewhere, had now moved back to East Barnet Health Centre.

He said that in regard to Finchley Memorial Hospital, currently not all of the space was being utilised and a Reimaging Finchley Memorial Programme Board has been established to remedy this. Mr Turbett said the Board would engage in conversations with the landlord to try and improve the situation and had had positive conversations with GPs about moving into the site.

Councillor Stock asked for clarification on how much space was not being used. Mr Turbett said it was a key priority to reduce the unused space. He explained that a new research and development project would occupy some of the unused space. Councillor Stock expressed frustration that all the previous discussions concerning the site had still not led to a solution. Mr Turbett said the CCG had conducted trials on how best to use the space before making decisions. He said that he hoped he would be able to return in October to update the Committee with a success story. Mr Turbett said that the landlord had agreed to pay to re-configure some of the rooms so that the Royal Free could move the Breast Screening unit into the Hospital. The Chairman commented that the whole process appeared to be very inefficient.

Councillor Cohen said that all the project papers failed to provide any timelines and suggested that one be drawn up on each project and a plan on when they would be implemented. Councillor Cohen also asked whether it was being implied that inflexible rates had been causing issues and whether GPs were choosing not to move into the hospital because of the costs. Mr Turbett explained that they were not able to impose anything on the landlord, but would be working closely with them to have things implemented. He explained that there had been immense pressure on the acute services over the last seven to eight months, but Barnet CCG was now highly motivated to do something about Finchley Memorial.

Mr Turbett said that by October there will be a permanent plan in place. He said it had been a good idea to have a pilot scheme in place last year, but it is recognised that a permanent use for the space needs to be found.

Councillor Moore said that when this was first discussed, Members had been much more optimistic about the future but were now frustrated with the situation and lack of progress. She said that local residents had been hoping for a solution for a number of years and talks surrounding this had been going on far too long. The Chairman asked that the cost of the void space be communicated to the Committee. He said that breast screening would be moving into the building and that this would take up eight of the rooms and reduce the void by 7%. Councillor Old commented that the cost of void space was very wasteful and the CCG could have used the money elsewhere.

Councillor Williams asked why the CCG had not considered taking over the whole property. Mr Turbett explained that it was not the function of the CCG to manage properties.

On behalf of the Committee, the Chairman expressed the Committee’s disappointment that yet again things seemed to be moving at a very slow pace. She asked that a timeline in regard to the projects be brought to the next meeting.

RESOLVED – That the Committee noted the report.