Have your say in the future of healthcare in Fife

Following consultation with patients, carers, staff and the public, the health board has produced a report setting out its proposals for the next five years and beyond.

The meetings will take place across Fife to gauge feedback from Fifers.

Dr Frances Elliot, director at NHS Fife, said: “We started our public consultation on July 1 and we are going through a three month period to seek the views not just of our staff, but also the patients who use our services and, more widely, the general public.

“We are going to give people information about why we need to change some of the services we deliver because we have got both an increasing population and an ageing population and therefore we need to be able to meet those needs in a better way in the future.

“People want to have care close to home and we need to redesign some of our pathways of care to make sure that that can be delivered as close to the patient as possible, so there are a lot of factors that are influencing care that we need to be able to take into account in our strategy.”

The public meetings will take place at the following locations: Kirkcaldy Health Centre on Thursday, September 8;

St Andrews Community Hospital on Tuesday, September 13; Glenwood Health Centre on Thursday, September 15; Cupar Health Centre on Tuesday, September 20; Linburn Road Health Centre on Wednesday, September 21; Leven Health Centre on Thursday, September 22; Cowdenbeath Health Centre on Wednesday, September 28 and Oakley Health Centre on Thursday, September 29.

Copies of the report can be found online at www.nhsfife.org/clinical strategy and in doctor’s surgeries or pharmacies.