Fife health chief – pressure on services ‘worse than winter’
A Fife health chief has admitted that the recent summer months has been “worse than winter” as they work to meet demand for services.
Lynne Garvey, director of the Fife Health and Social Care Partnership, spoke of current pressures at Wednesday’s meeting of the Fife Integrated Joint Board.
“We remain extremely busy,” she said. “Summer has felt like winter. I have never known pressures quite like it.
“The beginning of July was probably worse than winter in terms of demand and how stretched we have been across the whole system.
“We are responding and working very hard but demand continues to grow. Our capacity can never meet that demand.
“We are looking at novel ways and how we can work to try and address that.”
Ms Garvey paid tribute to the teams facing the increased demand.
She added: “I want it noted my personal thanks to all our staff and our partners for their continued commitment, their tenacity and resilience in what remains to be an extremely challenging period.