Evening GP services at three Fife hospitals to be cut due to staff shortages

Evening GP services at three Fife community hospitals are to be cut due to staff shortages.

The out-of-hours service will no longer run between midnight and 8am at Queen Margaret Community Hospital in Dunfermline, Glenrothes Community Hospital and St Andrews Community Hospital. Patients will instead be sent to Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy.

The changes come in to force from Monday (April 9) and will last over a three-month trial period.

The move is in response to staff shortages.

Dr Alan McGovern, Fife Health and Social Care Partnership's clinical director (West Division), said: "The safety of every single patient is in Fife is our first priority.

"As with most areas in Scotland, difficulty in recruiting GPs and Primary Care medical staff for out of hours work has put enormous pressure on delivering the service.

"In Fife, the out of hours service has only been able to maintain cover through daily monitoring and enormous efforts by all staff.

"Unfortunately we are now in a position where we are unable to cover all the overnight shifts, meaning we have had to move to contingency measures to ensure patient safety.

"Between midnight and 08:00, around 11 people attend Queen Margaret Hospital, Glenrothes Hospital and St Andrews centres in any one night.

"They will now go to the centre at the Victoria Hospital, Kirkcaldy.

"Home visits, for those who require them, will not be affected. These contingency measures will be reviewed in three months."