COWDENBEATH MSP Alex Rowley is calling for an independent review of the performance of NHS Fife and has written to Scottish Government Health Secretary, Alex Neil, raising his concerns and worry about “the ability of NHS Fife to meet the health needs of the people of Fife”.

In his letter to the Health Minister he stated, “You will recall we had a brief discussion in the Garden Lobby some four weeks ago about the relationship between Fife Council and NHS Fife and their ability to fund more care places in the community. “I have followed this up with meetings with the Chief Executive and Leader of Fife Council to discuss the issues that the Council are dealing with. I was to meet with the Chief Executive of NHS Fife today but this was cancelled as he is once again on sick leave. I intended to raise a number of issues with him but feel that these are serious enough to merit bringing them to you and indeed for me to call for an independent review of the performance of NHS Fife and its ability to meet the health needs of the people of Fife.” Mr Rowley continued, “There are many issues and concerns, not least the level of pressure that staff have been working under, and continue to work under. I outline below some of my key concerns.

“NHS Fife have acknowledged they have at least 40 consultant places that are currently not filled and that they are struggling to recruit for these posts whilst doing their best to plug the gaps with locums. “As you know this is a very expensive way to try and deliver health services and is perhaps one reason why the acute budget was overspent by over £8 million last year, and also casts a big shadow over the future transfer of funding from acute to community where we are now seeing a major problem with lack of resources. However, we also need to know what the impact is on people and their ability to access services when there are over 40 missing consultants”.

He also highlighted to fact that NHS Fife have confirmed that they are failing to meet targets when it comes to psychological services and have created a second waiting list to remove people from the first list which provides the benchmark for the targets.

The Labour MSP is also raising questions on the number of beds available within the NHS in Fife stating, “There seems to be conflicting information available”. He added; “For example, earlier this year information provided by the Information Services Division showed that in March 2012 there were 1470 beds and that this had fallen by 166 in December 2013 to 1304. “More recently there seems to be a different set of figures being presented in a different format.

“This leads me to question the modelling that was carried out when the majority of acute services were centralised into one site at the Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy. We need to know what assumptions were made and if the performance has reflected the modelling that took place. It is my view that since the new Victoria Hospital was opened it has bounced from crisis to crisis and there must be a review of all assumptions that were made in the planning that led to the decision to centralise service on one single site”.

Mr Rowley also asked the Health Minister, “Can you confirm that NHS Fife has amongst the lowest numbers of adult acute beds of any territorial health board area in Scotland at 2.0 per 1000 against the Scottish average of 3.1 per 1000 population? He went on, “I would ask are you confident that we have the leadership and resources that are required in place to steer NHS Fife through the many difficulties and challenges it is experiencing?” The Scottish Government confirmed NHS Fife received £529million in frontline funding last year, a 25 per cent increase, plus a rise in staffing levels.

A spokesperson said, “We monitor the performance of health boards on an ongoing basis and we have strong procedures in place to ensure any concerns raised are addressed as quickly as possible.

“The Health Secretary will be holding NHS Fife’s annual review in public on 29th July – giving local residents and MSPs the opportunity to get a comprehensive picture of how the board has performed over the last year and to put any questions directly to the board.” NHS Fife deputy chief executive, Dr Brian Montgomery, said, “It would be inappropriate to comment on the contents of correspondence sent directly between an MSP and the Cabinet Secretary.

“As with all of our elected representatives, we are happy to meet with Mr Rowley to discuss any matters he wishes to raise.”