A MOVE has been made to have a ‘formal consultation’ involving the GP practice in Kelty about the capacity of the village health centre’s to deal with any further house building.

Councillor Alex Campbell has written to the Fife Health and Social Care Partnership with regards to the proposal by I H Brown to build 900 new houses on land adjacent to the M90 motorway, on the outskirts of Kelty.

He feels that too little is being done to address this issue and that any addition to Kelty’s population, without an increased level of health care capacity, could pose serious problems for staff at the Main Street facility.

In his letter Councillor Campbell said: “As you may be aware Kelty has seen significant new build housing take place over the last two decades that has almost doubled the size of the village and this has resulted in the Kelty Medical Centre being used to full capacity.

“As the application to build 900 new homes currently stands, there is no proposal for a new health centre, despite the fact that the Kelty Practice objected to the application on the grounds that the current health centre would not be able to cope with any further addition to the population of the village. Fife Council planners say that NHS Fife were consulted on the development and did not raise any issues.

“My colleague Alex Rowley MSP raised this direct with the NHS Fife CEO and chair and was told that this is a matter for the Health and Social Care Partnership.

“I am therefore writing to you to ask that a formal consultation takes place with the Kelty Practice to examine what the current capacity of the Health Centre is and what impact a further 900 new houses in the village would have on the medical centre and the services it provides for the local community of Kelty”.

He added: “The village Community Council has also made direct representations raising their concerns about the need for a new medical centre.

“I believe it is clearly in the interest of the people of Kelty that we establish the facts around the medical centre as soon as possible but it is also in the interests of NHS Fife and the Health Social Care Partnership to do so.”