Highland Perthshire health services to reduce opening hours amid staffing issues

As NHS Tayside continues to face recruitment headaches in Highland Perthshire, two community hospitals are changing their opening times.

The plans affect the Minor Injury and Illness units in Crieff and Pitlochry.

The Crieff centre will be closed over the weekend from next Wednesday, 1st August. In Pitlochry, opening times are being reduced from 9am-9pm to 9am - 5pm.

The decision has local MSP Murdo Fraser worried patients living in rural areas like Comrie, Blair Atholl and Aberfeldy will face lengthy journeys for treatment.

He said:

"On top of all this, we're seeing a downgrade in the Accident and Emergency Unit at Perth Royal Infirmary, so increasingly people with medical emergencies at the weekends and after 5:00pm on weekdays are going to be directed to Ninewells which is a very long journey for too many of them.

"Somebody who has had a serious accident, they do require patching up quite quickly. It's bad enough if you're in a remote part of Highland Perthshire having to make the journey to Pitlochry Community Hospital. Now to find out that hospital will be closed from five o'clock, that's only going to add to the distress and inconvenience that its caused these individuals.

"I think this is quite a serious issue and I think it's part of a pattern we've seen across Perthshire where there's been a deterioration in the quality of local health services, and too much centralisation in the direction of Dundee."

The health board insists the measure is temporary.

Robert Packham, Chief Officer, Perth & Kinross Health and Social Care Partnership, said, “It is essential that we provide an MIIU service with appropriately skilled staff which is safe for patients and staff. Our MIIU units require highly skilled nurses, who undertake specialist training to offer the full range of professional skills required by people using the MIIU services.

“Due to staffing vacancies within the service, we have introduced these temporary changes to the opening hours for the Minor Injury and Illness Services in Pitlochry and Crieff. We are continuing to actively recruit to these posts to replace staff with the required level of experience and expertise for this specialist service."