Thousands sign petition in bid to save out-of-hours GP service

Almost 3,500 people have signed an online petition calling for the out-of-hours GP service to be retained in St Andrews.

Hundreds more have added their names to paper copies circulating in north-east Fife, urging the region’s health and social care partnership to scrap its controversial proposal to axe the service.

The partnership is consulting on plans to centralise the primary care emergency service either at Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy and Queen Margaret Hospital in Dunfermline, or just Kirkcaldy.

This would mean evening and weekend GP services at St Andrews Community Hospital, Glenrothes Hospital and possibly Queen Margaret would close.

The partnership said the move was necessary to ensure patient safety because of a shortage of GPs and nurses on the out-of-hours rota.

Overnight services from midnight to 8am were centralised in Kirkcaldy in April, initially for four months but now extended till January.

The decision was made despite a huge public outcry and an offer from north-east Fife GPs to continue the service in St Andrews.

The online petition, started by North East Fife Liberal Democrat MSP Willie Rennie, said patients in his constituency would be significantly affected by the proposed changes given the distance to Kirkcaldy.

“Local GPs say the proposed new service represents an unacceptable loss of local service that will threaten patient safety and impact most profoundly on our elderly patients and on families with children,” he said.

The petition can be found at you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/.