NHS Fife said this week that it is 'normal practice' for children under 16 to be sent to the Royal Hospital for Sick Children or Queen Margaret Hospital for routine treatment to 'improve patient safety,' and the numbers are increasing as doctors are retiring.

Since 2001 the number of retirements in paediatrics has outweighed the number of new recruits at the Victoria Hospital, meaning many routine operations are no longer carried out at the Hayfield site.

A spokesman from NHS Fife told the Press: "With regard to the changes in general surgery these were specifically as a result of the retirement of Fife surgeons who were experienced in operating on children.

"Medical training now means that doctors specialise at an earlier stage and very few choose to specialise in paediatric general surgery.
"As a result, newer consultants have no experience of operating on children."

The news comes after a government report stated that one third of doctors in Scotland carrying out general surgery on children will retire within the next decade and will not be replaced.

The problem means youngsters from all over Fife are being sent miles from their homes for routine procedures, with anaesthetists who are also trained in paediatric work doubling up their jobs, and because the main trauma centre is based in Dunfermline, most surgical teams are also based there.

Kirkcaldy MSP Marilyn Livingstone said: "This is a great concern, and I have already been in touch with acute services to get some answers.
"Sometimes a child will have to travel to get specialist help, and I understand that.

"But when a child is ill it can be very stressful, so we should really be trying to avoid making these children travel and adding this extra strain on the family as well as the child."

NHS Fife has said, however, that despite 791 day surgery cases and 353 inpatient cases being transferred from the Victoria, the new wing to be built at the hospital includes provision for some paediatric surgery as part of the Women's and Children's service.

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