‘Lives are at risk’: Councillor renews call for hospital upgrade
A DUNFERMLINE councillor is hoping to raise the case of upgrading the Queen Margaret Hospital with the Scottish Government’s health secretary.
Gavin Ellis, who represents Dunfermline North, has submitted a motion which will be heard at Tuesday’s meeting of the City of Dunfermline area committee.
It states: “Committee requests that the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, Humza Yousaf, be written to and invited to attend the next City of Dunfermline area committee to update committee members on the situation of our Queen Margaret hospital.
“Our residents whom we represent deserve to know why over 10 years of closure we still don’t have an accident and emergency department that is operational or full maternity services, surely 10 years-plus has been enough time for workforce planning to have been put in place and to have a plan in going forward.
“Dunfermline is a city and its residents deserve the services that affords.”
Cllr Ellis said the issue was a recurring one for him and his fellow councillors.
“Before and after the election campaign, it was an issue that raised its head again,” he said.
“Back in 2017, I had written to Jeanne Freeman asking if it was possible for a review of services at the Queen Margaret, however, along came the typical excuse – there’s not funding – and the buck was passed to the NHS officers.
“It is not good enough. We are now 10 years into not having a full service. We have had mass housebuilding that has been forced on us, even councillors have rejected it but it has been overturned. That is 10 years of workforce planning. We could have had the staff, the planning, done by now.
“I don’t want to be in a situation that it is just writing and having to have exchanges of letters. We want the minister responsible to come and answer to the committee.
“It is not just Dunfermline. We are talking South and West Fife as well. Lives are at risk, especially if there is a serious accident and having to travel to Kirkcaldy. It is time for no more passing the buck to the NHS.”
The Queen Margaret was downgraded to a day-case hospital only at the start of the millennium as NHS Fife made the Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy the Kingdom’s main acute care facility as part of its ‘Right for Fife’ strategy.