News from The Barnet Society

Barnet Hospital’s first nurses’ home, now used for offices, is celebrating the 90th anniversary of its opening – just as work is underway to provide new accommodation for key nursing staff.

A new masterplan for the future redevelopment of the Barnet Hospital site is in preparation and it does include proposals for a new multi-storey car park. Royal Free London NHS Trust has already conducted an informal pre-planning application with Barnet Council on future plans for the Wellhouse Lane site.

A long-running campaign by the Barnet Society to persuade Transport for London to run a bus service from High Barnet tube station to Barnet Hospital and the Spires shopping centre has won the support of Councillor Richard Cornelius, leader of Barnet Council.

An extension of the High Barnet controlled parking zone to impose restrictions on roads around Barnet Hospital has produced a furious response from adjoining streets that fear they will now have to accommodate many more parked cars and vans.

The tenth anniversary of the poisoning with radioactive polonium of the former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko brings back memories for an ex-Barnet journalist who reported on the role of Barnet Hospital in the story surrounding one of London’s most alarming assassinations.

Junior doctors from Barnet Hospital spent their strike day collecting signatures in support of the British Medical Association’s petition to the Prime Minister urging the government to agree a contract that is “fair for doctors, safe for patients and provides a future for the NHS”.

Even before the completion of its fitting out, an application has been made for planning permission to almost double the size of a new private hospital which is to open in Moxon Street, High Barnet. Hadley Wood Hospital is due to open shortly and will be owned and managed by a team of local specialist consultants.

Reorganise chaotic approach to High Barnet tube station to provide space for a bus service direct to the Spires and Barnet Hospital – plea by the Barnet Society.

For well over 60 years the Victoria Maternity Hospital served the people of the Barnets, but today there is scant recognition of the vital role it once played in the area.