LOCHGELLY Community Council representatives attended a very positive discussion session with NHS representatives and after months of campaigning it appears that they are finally making progress with their campaign for a new health centre.

The Community Council have focussed on the facts surrounding the state of the existing facility, the increase in the population of the town and the benefits to be derived from the social prescribing model to take forward the campaign.

The Fife Health Partnership held the meeting where it was agreed that Francis Street should be chosen as the site for the new centre.

Community Council Secretary, Stevie Murray said: “The fact that Fife Council had given clear assurances that land would be made available made us more determined to push forward with this issue.

“We received cross party support, which itself is an achievement in this day and age, for our campaign. Now the NHS have finally acknowledged that Lochgelly needs a new centre and have identified their preferred site it would appear that our efforts are working.

"We still need the project to be funded and therefore we cannot sit back and relax. The project is 'spade ready' and we need everyone to keep supporting the campaign until funding has been provided.”

Lochgelly is an area of multi-deprivation and the current facility simply isn’t able to cope with the range of services that we need in the town. The community want the new Health Centre to become the ‘Health Hub’ for the area which would be able to provide Physiotherapy, Paediatric, Counselling and Diabetes support as well as integrating with social and advisory services to help people.

Added Stevie Murray: "We already know that Lochgelly has the highest levels of multiple illnesses and higher levels of prescribed medication for mental health problems.

"A Health Hub would tackle these problems and provide for a higher quality of life, health wise, for the people of the town.

"With a further 109 new homes currently in planning for land adjacent to The Avenue and 1800 in the Fife Development plan there is no way that the current building will cope, let alone the hard working staff who work there".

Stevie concluded: “There is a still a lot to be done to make this ‘preferred option’ a reality. At this stage the NHS have only committed to their preferred site, they have not committed to building the facility and have not committed any funds for it. "Neither have been any set aside by the Scottish Government to support the development, which are obviously crucial if this is to become a reality.

“The Scottish Government previously said that if there was a proven need for the project then they would support it. We need now for the Health Minister to commit to this promise.

"We understand that these projects take time and that there will still be a public consultation exercise before any work can commence. However, the longer we wait the more people will suffer.”