St Andrews and Dunfermline residents voice anger over out-ofhours care closures.

Doctor argues the move to centralise out-of-hours care is the wrong one

Members of the East Neuk community are demanding they be allowed to keep their out-of-hours service if enough GPs volunteer to staff it.

A community meeting was held in St Andrews last night and was attended by dozens of concerned residents, medical professionals and politicians.

They told bosses at the Fife Health and Social Care Partnership (FHSCP) they failed to see why services were cut at the St Andrews Community Hospital which appeared to be working well.

Dr Gerry Smyth, a GP who has provided out-of-hours care, told how he felt the decision to centralise the out-ofhours care was the wrong one.

He said: “I do feel, alongside my colleagues who work in the service, that we have a duty and a responsibility to produce high-quality, safe and local medical services for patients.

“And I’m afraid to say that I don’t think the decisions that have been made allow us to do that.

“Most of us feel the decisions that have been made were ill-considered, unnecessary and they’re unsafe.

“I say they’re ill-considered because none of my colleagues were ever told there was a crisis.

“None of us were asked what would we do and what would our advice be if there was a crisis.

“And none of us were involved in those decisions. I know if I had a staff crisis, the first thing I would do is ask the staff.

“The decision was unnecessary because the precedent that brought us these staffing difficulties arises in central Fife and west Fife.

“St Andrews is always well staffed with very little difficulty in relative terms.”

Dr Smyth told how he and his colleagues had offered to continue their out-of-hours service in St Andrews but were asked to work at the Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy to which they declined.

Concerns were also raised about the distance and time it would take for people to travel to the hospitals in Kirkcaldy and Dundee with one person having spent £120 on taxi fares.

Conservative MSP Liz Smith and her colleague MSP Murdo Fraser also backed calls for the FHSCP to allow St Andrews Hospital to stay open with their volunteer GPs.

Seonaid McCallum, associate medical director for the health and social care partnership, said: “We as a service have a duty of care to provide safe care for the whole of Fife.

“The GMC is very clear in this that I have a duty as a doctor for the population of Fife.”

Simon Little, chairman of the FHSCP, reassured the meeting that a proper consultation would be carried out by the board which would ask GPs for their input.

St Andrews is always well staffed with very little difficulty in relative terms. DR GERRY SMYTH